they ought to leave their beds and go to prayers Blessed â—e God c. That he created me an Israelite or a Jew or as others render it that he did not make me one of the Gentiles By Gentile they understand Christian which they esteem as Infidels Idolaters and a cursed Nation The woman saith blessed be God c. that he created me a Jewess Blessed be God c. that he hath not created me a servant this also thwarts the profession of Christians whom they account their vassalls who shall sow and plow their ground and shall do all manner of servile imployments for them while in the mean time they shall sit behind a hot fornace rosting apples tossing up whole bowls of wine What kind of Captivity is this They answer if any man rest himself in any place having a huge Bowl of rich wine in his hand then he is free from bondage when on the contrary the Christians are forced to labour and till the Earth in the sweat of their browes and nostrils Blessed c. That he hath not made me a woman the women instead thereof say Blessed c. that he hath created me according to his own good will and pleasure This is done in contempt of the womans sex because they are not comprehended in the Covenant of Circumcision by which God â—eals unto himself his own peculiar people and therefore this Scripture must perforce be hatched in the womans brains that is to say whether they be in the Catalogue of Israelites as their husbands are Blessed c. who exaltest the humble Blessed c. who gives sight unto the blind This Thanksgiving is usuall when they first wake out of their sleep and unshut their eye-lids Blessed c. who makes the crooked straight this they say when lifting themselves up in their bed they go about to attire themselves Blessed c. who clothes the naked this they say when they put on their cloaths Blessed c. who raiseth them that fall Blessed c. who bringeth the prisoners out of Captivity These two severall Thanksgivings are assigned for this reason because God in the time of sleep doth in that manner sustaine and multiply mans spirits that they may again exercise their proper functions the time of their being asleep being like unto prisoners in the pit Blessed c. who stretcheth out the earth above the waters this they say when rising out of their beds they begin to tread upon the ground Blessed c. who directs prepares and governs the wayes of man this he saith so soon as he comes out of his bed-chamber Blessed c. who hath created all things necessary for this life this he utters when he ties his shooes Blessed c. who girdest Israel with the girdle of strength this he saith when he puts on his girdle which every Jew is bound to do as hath been formerly declared Blessed c. who crowns Israel with comelinesse this he saith when he puts his hat upon his head for it is an hainous offence to go out of his Chamber uncovered Blessed c. who refresheth the weary Blessed be thou O God our Lord King of the whole world who removest sleep from mine eyes and slumber from mine eye-lids These prayers ended being so many in number they adde two more wherein they petition God that he would vouchsafe to keep and defend them against sin reprobate angels wicked men and all kind of evil Then humbling themselves before God they confess themselves guilty and relying only upon the mercy of God they comfort themselves again with a certain Prayer beginning Ribbon Col haolamim and with much boasting and many brags in that oath which the Lord sware unto Abraham being about to sacrifice his Son Isaac say yet we are thy people and the children of thy Covenant and O blessed men that we are how goodly is our portion how pleasant our lot how beautifull our Inheritance O blessed men that we are who every morning pronounce this sentence Heare O Israel the Lord our God is one God! Gather us that trust in thee from the four corners of the earth by which action all the Inhabitants of the world shal know that thou art God alone O our Father which art in heaven run after us with thy mercy even for thy names sake because thy name is named upon us and confirm and establish in us that which is written At that time will I bring you back at that time will I gather you and give you a name and renown amongst all the people of the earth when I have turned againyour captivity saith the Lord God After these be ended there follow 2 other short Prayers in which they give thanks for the Law delivered to them from heaven From the Law they proceed to their sacrifices which because they may not offer in these dayes they are banisht out of their own Land their Temple is laid desolate as their Ancestors were accustomed the sacrifice of the lip succeeds in the place thereof and reading only the precepts coÌ„cerning sacrifices as they ought in their appointed times to have been offered they solace themselvs with that saying of the Prophet though in a sense perverted We will sacrifice the calves of our lips After this they ruminate the historical narration about sacrifices as also a certain prayer beginning Rabbi Ismahel concerning the use of the Law and the manifold exposition thereof which being grounded upon the Talmud is so barbarous and difficult that not one Jew amongst an hundred is able to understand it This they read in such a manner as the Vestal Virgins do the Psalter This done they say a Prayer in which they Petition for the re-edification of Jerusalem and the Temple which they daily even unto this day expect and hope for yet this they say with such a fainting voice that none can hear it The words are these Let it be thy good pleasure before thy face O Lord and God the God of our Fathers that the holy house thy Temple may be built again in these our dayes and give unto us a will to abide in thy Law Hereupon rising up with great joy and shouting they chant out another laudatory Prayer or thanksgiving hoping that God will shortly begin to lay the foundation of their new Temple and bring them back again into their own Land Then sitting down they repeat a long Prayer collected out of the Psalms of David reading withall some whole Psalmes and a part of the thirtieth Chapter of the first book of Chronicles and lastly singing the last words of the Prophet Obadiah which are these Saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau and the Kingdome shall be the Lords With attent minds and much rejoycing their hope is that these Saviours of whom the Prophet makes mention shall come quickly and shall go up to Mount Sion that is they shall undertake the quarrel for the Jews and
the bread to be covered in remembrance of the Manna For first of all a certaine dew fell in the desart after that the Manna and then another dew between which two it lay hid as between two napkins And so the bread upon the Jewes table lyes between two linnen clothes Hence it is that the women make minced pies or boile some other thing like unto it which they eat instead of Manna for their minced pye hath a certaine lumpe for its bottom and in the middle it is stuft with flesh above also it hath a certain cover made like unto Manna The reason why they take two loaves is in remembrance of the Manna whereof they gathered in times past two measures full upon every Friday according to that which is written And it came to passe that on the sixt day they gathered twice as much bread Briefly of all things to be done by us in this world an especiall care is to bee had of our bodies upon the Sabbath day which thing the holy Scripture so often commands us saying Thou shalt call the Sabbath Oneg a delight because wee ought to restrhaine our selves from no sort of pleasure upon the Sabbath day In the same manner speaks the holy Scrpture concerning festivals Thou shalt rejoice in thy feasts thou and thy sonne c. that all our actions may tend to Gods glory Eat and drinke therefore and be good unto thy selfe and remember to doe it in honour to the Sabbath Yet not thinking that hee may eat many delicates upon the Friday for the filling of his paunch especially if he be poor and cannot away with the cost for this should rather have a place in the Catalogue of sinnes then good workes seeing he should also thinke upon the Sabbath day that he should have no such cheare upon Sunday and so become sorrowfull at that time when he ought the most of all to be merry Al this also is summarily comprehended in a little book called Sepher hajirah teaching us how a Jew ought to lead his life in the feare of the Lord and is delivered by the Jewes themselves in the following verses Against the Sabbath ready thou shalt be To leave all worke that doth belong to thee Thy selfe for Sabbath do prepare its gaine Though many maids and servants thou maintaine The Sabbath equally in all precepts availeth Be of good cheare thinke as thee nought aileth Use neat apparell costly raiments weare For Sabbath of a bride the name doth beare Buy that is daintiest ' gainst the Sabbath's day Strictly observe its precepts every way Keep in good appetite the stomack thine Feed upon fish and flesh and healthy wine Dresse up thy bed in handsome fashion good Order thy table well set on thy food Bath wash and cleanse thy head trim up thy haire About thee never any thing do beare Sharpen thy knife fall stoutly to thy meate Cut off thy nailes fling them in fiery heate Speake blessing to thy wine cleanse hand and foot By this precept thou shalt doe good I wot Be of good mood of comfortable ease Refraine not from thy selfe wherein canst please Merry and withall joyfull shalt thou be As if thy workes all finish'd were by thee Remove thee fro all dumpes and pensivenesse Table and stools have in a readinesse Lay on cleane table cloth and napkins as 't is fit Hasten away your rost-meat from the spit Swill handsomely your cups and drinking glasses Put out of mind your once endured losses Buy the best bit thou find'st upon the Mart With wife and children make a merry heart One table once thus dressed gives thee three meales Talke nothing but of merry making tales c. There is also extant a certaine booke of theirs wherein are contained many graces used by them before and after meat as also upon the chiefe festivals throughout the whole yeare written in Hebrew and Teutonicke verse Amongst others there is one prayer which begins How lovely is thy rest O Lord c. Where it followeth In gallant suit thyselfe aray Blesse candle light so 't will in burning mend From all manner of working flye away On Fryday all thy works bring to an end Eat savoury fâ—shes goodly capons quailes Live delicately see that nothing failes Then against Even thy selfe thus recreate All manner of good things for thee provide Well-fatted beeves and such as likes thy pate From a good cup of spice'd wine doe not slide c. Item In all meeknesse thou shalt walke For of that the Law doth talke With meeknesse all thy lifetime shall be led When Sunne doth rise at leisure keep thy bed c. Item Linnen and silken rayment much is made of Honour'd they be that doe make their clothes thereof An holy day the Sabbath is Happy that keeps it not amisse Bring not your hearts to heavy mournfull courses Although much leannesse lodge within your purses Cheerfull you ought to be and without sorrow Although elsewhere your mony you do borrow Furnish your selves with wine with flesh and fishes Upon your table set three sorts of dishes A good reward for thee will then be hasting Here and in time to come for everlasting c Item Women your candles remember for to light With carefull heed observe this time aright Here of great profit you will make full quickly When great with child you shall come to be fickly If then fine cakes to bake you shall be skilfull At child birth you may play and laugh your wil-full And now lest any should account of these as poeticall figments and fables I will relate some pleasant histories out of the Talmud whereby you may have a plaine evident yea even miraculous demonstration that the pleasure and jocund life upon the Sabbath day is the chiefest honour In that tract of the Talmud entituled de Sabbatho These e words are registred as they came from the mouth of Rabbi Chaia I saith he was upon a time in Cyprus others say in Ladkia where I lodged with a certaine Katzubh or Butcher At the time of supper a table all of gold was brought in which sixteen men were scarce able to carry all the furniture and other necessaries upon the table were of gold the platters candlestickes salts cups and trenchers all of gold with a snmptuous variety of delicates an most excellent apples When the table was set before him he beginning to praise God said The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof When the table was removed he againe singing praises unto God said The heaven is the Lords and the earth hath he given unto the children of men Then I spoke unto him and said Good Sir how came you to be so rich and what good thing have you done in all your life The Master of the houshold the Butcher I meane replyed I have been a Butcher all my life long and whensoever it was my chance to happen upon some choise fatling I alwaies reserved it for the celebration of
because without these there is no pleasure and also by reason of the command which saith Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God thou and thy son and thy daughter For a conclusion le ts see what the Prophets say concerning these Jewes who have taken the Law to wife The sentence of Isaiah is The earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the Lawes changed the Ordinance and broken the everlasting Covenant And the Lord by the mouth of Ezâ—kiel saith The Priests have out of malice perverted my law and profaned my sanctuary Stephen cries out against them Ye stifnecked and uncircumcised in heart and eares you doe alwaies resist the holy ghost as your fathers did so do yee Who have received the Law by the disposition of Angels and have not kept it CHAP. XVI Of their Feast of Tabernacles THE third great Festivall of the Jewes which they are to celebrate every yeare once appearing before the Lord in Jerusalem is the Feast of Tabernacles concerning which as also the two former it is writ in the fifth book of Moses Three times a yeare shall all thy males appeare before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall chuse in the Feast of unleavened bread in the Feast of weeks and in the Feast of Tabernacles and they shall not appeare before the Lord empty The time of the celebration of this Feast was according to Gods owne commandement to bee the fifteenth day of the seventh month according to the vulgar account beginning to reckon from the first day of the new yeare of Festivals of which we have spoken formerly that it begins in March and so consequently inferre that this seventh month must be our September The etymologie whereof as also the reason why this month in their common annuall account is called the first shall hereafter be more at large declared The end of their keeping of this Feast was as a signe or token whereby the Israelites might recall to mind the fatherly providence of Almighty God by which hee had sustained the children of Israel after a wonderfull manner for the space of forty yeares in the desert having neither house nor harbor The manner of celebration is thus prescribed by Moses You shall dwell in boothes seven daies all that are Israelites born shall dwell in boothes that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in boothes when I brought them out of the land of Egypt These boothes were wont to be made of the boughes of goodly trees as the mirtle olive firre which by reason of their fatnesse would for a long time retaine their green attire branches of palm trees boughes of thicke trees willowes of the brook as it is in the same place This they put in practise in the daies of Nehemiah after their returne from Babylon for it is recorded that then they published and proclaimed in all their Cities and in Jerusalem saying Goe forth unto the mount and fetch olive branches pine branches myrtle branches and palme branches and branches of thicke trees to make boothes And they did so From that which hath been said we may gather 1. That the Jewes in ancient times made Tabercles of these kinds of boughes in which they dwelt for the space of eight daies 2. That there were in use for the fabrick more then foure severall kinds of boughes or branches yea the willowes of the brook are not mentioned in the forecited place of Nehemiah which were used for the knitting together of the other branches being plyable and fit for that purpose Therefore the Jewes of these present times commit a grosse error that they in a most superstitious manner in the celebration of this Festivall tie and confine themselves to those foure kinds of branches only mentioned by Moses and not building them Tabernacles therewithall but transferring them to another use of which more hereafter Concerning this Feast there is extant a large tract in the Talmud wherein the genuine observation and celebration thereof is set downe the platâ€forme of the boothes or Tabernacles exquisitely drawne the use of the foure severall sorts of branches described with much disputation and great subtilty as their manner is not omitting to handle all the ceremonies belonging there unto yet never seeking after the true way and meanes whereby they may rightly lift up their hearts unto the God of their fathers For though in the time of this Feast they say many prayers yet they offer them up unto the Lord only upon the censure of their tongue not upon the altar of their hearts for in these they are far from him an evident demonstration hereof is the winged hudling over of these their petitions using such a precipitancy of speech as though they were able to pronounce a thousand words with one breath and accounting it a work of art and skill so to do This Feast endures for the space of eight daies the two first and the two last whereof are to be kept holy altogether those which are of the middle rank only for halfe the day Upon the fourteenth day of the month about eventide they meet in the Synagogue according to their ecclesiastical Ordinances and institutions where they sing and pray untill it bee night At which time they returne to their houses and retire themselves into their Tabernacles where the Master of the family saith a certaine prayer which serves for the initiation of the Feast and consecration of the Tabernacles giving thanks unto God that he hath chosen them before all other people exalted sanctified and commanded them to dwell in Tabernacles The thanks giving being ended they fall to supper where they are very jocund and merry In ancient daies they were wont also to lodge in their boothes which the Jewes at this day use not the coldnesse moistnesse and other maladies and incumbrances which might accrew unto them thereby being as so many potent arguments to disswade from this and to invite them to their owne bedâ€chambers which experience hath taught them to be the sweeter resting place Upon the morrow of the fifteenth day they returne into the Synagogue singing and praying and honouring the Lord with a little lip-service their hearts roving quite another way When the Chanter hath proceeded so farte in his prayers that he is come at last to those words Give peace in these our daâ—es O Lord then every one taking a little bundle of palm oliâ—e and willow branches in his right hand and an orenge in his lest saith Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world who hast sanctifyed us by thy commandments and commanded us to carry a bundle of branches Which while he is in repeating he shakes the bundle that it may make a noise the words of the Prophet moving him thereunto who saith The trees of the wood shall clap their hands Then he shakes the bundle three times towards the East three times towards the West
That by this mean Covenant-breakers may as well as the keepers the bad and the villanous as well as the good and just may sing praise and pray unto God Whence every Christian may see how little they esteem of an oath especially made unto one of us Then they hold on to sing and pray untill the night be far spent Some all the night over others returning to their houses betake them to their rest other sleep in some corner of the Synagogue or other or in the Synagogue of the women in some place farthest remote from the Arke They among the Jews who have an earnest desire truly to repent them of their sins and to lead a holy life stand all the time that the feast endures singing and praying without intermission as I have seen some who have stood immoveable in the same place for twenty seven hours together When the morning begins to approach they all repair to the Synagogue before the dawning of the day making there their agode untill night boasting very much of the book of the Law reading many Sections therein Falling often to the earth with their face uncovered and then chiefly when they make confession of their sins smiting their brests at every word to shew the devout attention of their mindes and the lifting up of their hearts unto their God and maker When it begins again to be night then the Priest wrapping a great hair-cloth ahout his neck and drawing it over his head so far untill it come to the threshold of his eyes he blesseth the people according to the ordinary forme prescribed by Moses Numbers the 6. the 24 25 26 and 27. verses When he pronounceth the blessing he stretcheth out his hands towards the people they covering their faces with their own for it is lawful for no man to look upon the hands of the Priests because the spirit of the Lord rests upon them while he blesseth the Congregation As it is written He standeth behinde our wall looking forth at the windows shewing himself through the grates that is to say God stands at the Priests back and looks through the windows and grates that is to say through his hands being being stretched out and his fingers being spread abroad severed one from another Then he siâ—gs another prayer repeating it seven times sometimes with a submisse and low sometimes with a loâ—d voice and the reason of this reiteration is because God at this time departs from them and goes into heaven not coming again untill the priest be the seventh time in repeating of this prayer The seventh time therefore they sing it in a melodious tune with a sense bereaving harmony having very good skill and sweet voices as they can witness who have heard them Before they depart the Synagogue they blow upon the Rams horne before mentioned a sound both long and loud in remembrance of the year of Jubile which in ancient times was wont to begin as upon this day Others write that they do it in memory of the seven heavens which the Lord opened when he descended upon Mount Sinai and gave the law to the people of Israel and declare unto them that in heaven there was no other God besides him When they have put an end to this their festival and a period to these their trifles then as they blush not to affirm there comes a voice from heaven saying goe and eat thy bread with joy and gladness of heart for God accepts all thy good works at the best Instantly upon the hearing of the voice they return to their own houses some carrying the reliques of their wax lights along with them because they commonly use them in making the separation between the festival and other dayes of the week But others on the contrary leave them in the Synagogue in the Candlesticks for a year together lighting them at some certain times They who are very holy and religious among them have a wax light burning in the Synagogue night and day never going out throughought the whole year this they call Ner Tamid an everlasting light When they are returning home one sayes unto another God the Creator seal unto a happy year for the three books of which we formerly made mention are now sealed up and Gods sentence pronounced upon every one is ratified and stands immutable Being come home they finde their guts to make a grievous complaint and themselves exceeding hungry having eaten nothing for twenty eight hours together they make haste therefore to satisfie their greedy appetite and to replenish their belly with store of victuals The next morning after they rise betimes out of their beds and return to the Synagogue lest Satan should take an occasion to complain of them saying unto God yesterday they rose early because it was the day of reconciliation but this day their devotion grows cold loving their pillow better then the Synagogue What should I say more this day they are so holy and religious so honest and devout that even the Devil is forced whether he will or not to commend their carriage concerning which we have his following conference in Pirk Rabbi Eleazar Upon that day in which God gave the Law to the Children of Israel the evil spirit Samael came unto him and said O Lord of the whole world thou hast given unto me power and dominion over all the people of the earth only the children of Israel excepted To whom the Lord made answer On the day of reconciliation and thence-forward thou shalt have power over them if thou canst finde any sin fault or offence in them of which if they be found in no manner guilty then shalt thou not approach so much as to touch them Which when Samael understood he said unto God thou hast a people upon earth like unto the Angels in heaven For as the Angels in heaven standing immoveable neither eat nor drink and being free from all sin live in peace among themselves even so do thy people Israel upon the day of Reconciliation which God hearing out of the mouth of the Devil presently without delay forgives them all their sins and opens his ear unto their prayers It is read in another place that they give gifts unto Satan that they may blinde and shut up his eyes lest he should see their doings and accuse them unto the Lord of hosts as it is written A gift blindeth the eyes of the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous I conclude with the words of God to Esay Cry aloud and spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgressions and to the house of Jacob their sins Yet they seek me daily and will know my wayes even as a nation that did righteously and had not forsaken the statutes of their God They will ask of me the ordinances of justice they will draw neer unto God saying Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest it not We have punished our selves and thou regardest
kings who proving traitors to their own faith shall also turn Apostates so living before men as though they served the true God yet in very deed practising nothing less seducing silly souls and after such a manner tormenting their consciences that they may abjure God and their own faith even so that many of the sinners of Israel shall utterly despair of redemption being ready to deny God and forsake his fear Concerning these things Isaiah speaketh c. 59. 14 15. Judgment is turned away backward and justice standeth afar off for truth is fllen in the street and equity cannot enter yea truth faileth What All they why shall love the truth shall flee in troops and flying hide themselves in the caves and holes of the earth and shall be massacred by the great and mighty and tyrannical persecutors At that time shall be no king in Israel as it is written The children of Israel shall abide many dayes without a King and without a Prince and without a sacrifice and without an Image and without an Ephod and without a Teraphin There shall not be any more Rosch Ieschibhah b that is head of the Synagogue no faithful teachers who may feed the people with the word of God no merciful and holy no famous and eminent persons shall remain The heaven shall be shut up and food shall fail these three kings shall enact laws so many so burdensome and so tyrannical pronounce such heavie judgments upon men that but a very few shall be left because they had rather die then living deny their maker Yet these three kings by Gods ordinance and disposition shall only reign three moneths In the time of their reign they shall double the ordinary tribute so that who formerly paied only eight pieces shall then pay eighty he who formerly paied ten shall then be forced to give an hundred He that hath nothing at all to give shall be punished with the loss of his head yea also the longer they shall reign the greater and heavier will the burdens be which they shall impose upon the children of Israel There shall also come certain men from the ends of the earth so black and abominable that if any man look upon them he will die through fear Every one of them shall have two heads and eight eyes shining like a flame of fire They shall run as nimbly and swiftly as an hart Then shall Israel cry out woe unto us woe unto us the frighted little ones cry alass alass dear father what shall we doe then shall the father answer the deliverance of Israel is now at hand and even at the door The second miracle God shall make the sun to exceed in heat that many burning feavers plagues and other diseases shall be scattered abroad upon the earth by reason of which a thousand thousand of the Gentiles and people of the world shall die daily Hereupon the Gentiles at length weeping shall bitterly cry out woe and alass whither shall we turn our selves where shall we hide us Thus with expedition they shall goe and dig their own graves wish for death and oppressed with thirst and grief hide themselves in the Caves and Dens of the Earth But this great heat shall be as physick and a refreshing to them that are just and good in Israel as it is written unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall by this sun of righteousness understanding that in the heavens Balaam say they also prophesied of this saying alass who shall live when the Lord hath brought it to pass The third miracle God shall make a dew of blood to fall upon the earth which all Christians and people of the earth thinking to be watery and most delightful shall take and drink and drinking die The Reprobate also in Israel who despaired of redemption shall also die by drinking of it but it shall not be hurtful to them who are just among the Iews who in a true faith firmly cleaving unto God do persevere in the same as it is written They that be just shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turne many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever again the whole world for three dayes space shall be full of blood according to that which is written I will give signes in heaven and in earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke The fourth miracle God shall send a wholsome dew upon the earth They shall drink of this who are indifferent honest It shall serve as a salve to them who were made sick by drinking of the former as it is written I will be as dew to Israel he shall grow as the lillie and cast forth his root as Lebanon The fifth miracle God shall turn the sune into so thick a darkenss that it shall not shine for the space of thirty dayes as it is written The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come At the end of thirty dayes God shall restore its light as it is written They shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit and shall be shut up in prison and after many dayes they shall be visited The Christians being sore affraid to see these things they shall be confounded with shame and acknowledg that all these things come to pass for Israels sake yea many of them shall embrace the Jewish religion as it is written They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy The sixth miracle God shall permit the kingdom of Edom to wit that of the Romans to bear rule over the whole world One of whose Emperours shall reign over the whole earth nine moneths who shall bring many great kingdoms to desolation whose anger shall flame towards the people of Israel exacting a great tribute from them and so bringing them into much misery and calamity Then shall Israel after a strange manner be brought low and perish neither shall they have any helper of this time Esay prophesied And he saw that there was no man and wondred that there was no intercessor therefore his arm brought salvation unto him After the expiration of these nine moneths God shall send the Messias son of Joseph who shall come of the stock of Joseph whose name shall be Nehemiah the son of Husiel He shall come with the stem of Ephraim Benjamin and Manasses and with one part of the sons of Gad. As soon as the Israelites shall hear of it they shall gather unto him out of every City and nation as it is written Turn ye back sliding children saith the Lord for I will reign over you I will take you one of a City and two of a tribe and bring you to Sion Then shall Messias the son of Joseph make great war against
God of mercies have mercy upon them and convert them and keep us firm and immoveable in the knowledge of his truth that in it we may hope to gain eternall life as Christ himself witnesseth to our comfort when he saith This is eternall life that they might know thee the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent To him be ascribed praise honour and glory for evermore Amen MICAH c. 4. v. 1 2. IN the last dayes it shall come to passe that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains and it shall be exalted above the hills and people shall flow unto it And many Nations shall come and say come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Iacob and he will teach us of his wayes and we will walk in his paths for the Law shall go orth from Sion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem Luther upon these words of Micah hath left this consequent paragraph in memory concerning the Iews So goes the matter hereupon arise these mentall divisions this is that which makes the Jews mad and foolish that which forceth them to a sense so damnable that they are compelled without the least shew of honesty to wrest every parcell of the Scripture because it contradicts their will and they cannot endure that we Gentiles should be equal copartners with them in Gods favour and that the Messias should in a like measure administer to us and them joy and consolation Moreover rather than they would vouchsafe that we the offspring of the Gentiles who are by them daily contemned accursed and devoted to the infernall hagges torn and cut in pieces by their slanderous backbitings should participate in the Merits of the Messias and enjoy the title of coheirs and brethren they had rather ten Messiahs should suffer the shamefull death of the crosse and afflict God himself if there were any possibility in nature the holy Angels and all other creatures with the stroke of death nay they would not be afraid of the fact though a thousand hellish torments were to be endured for the effecting of it so incomprehensible and austere is the pride mixed with the honourable blood of these Fathers and circumcised Saints who alone would enjoy the promised Messias and be capped for the sole Donns of the world The Nations or Gentiles ought onely to be these accursed vassals and to give up their desire that is their silver and gold unto the Iews and that they should be constrained to submit themselves unto them after the manner of beasts prepared to the slaughter rather then they will relinquish one whit of this their assertion they will not refuse wittingly and willingly to be damned eternally THE ARGUMENT OF EVERY CHAPTER CHap. 1. Concerning the Articles of the Jewish Creed the execution of Gods commandements and the causes of their superstition Chap. 2. Of their Nativity and Circumcision of the occasion and manner thereof Chap. 3. How the Jewes instruct their children in the feare of God Chap. 4. How they prepare themselves to morning Prayer Chap. 5. Of the form of their morning Prayer their Fringes and Phylacteries Chap. 6. In what order they depart the Synagogue and their preparation to dinner Chap. 7. How the Jews behave themselves in time of eating Chap. 8. Of the form of evening Prayer and manner of going to bed Chap. 9. Of their hollowing of Mondays and Thursdays Chap. 10. Of their preparation to the Sabbath and how they begin it Chap. 11. Of the Celebration of the Sabbath and how they make an end thereof Chap. 12. How the Jews prepare themselves to the celebration of the Passover Chap. 13. The manner how the Jewes celebrate their Passeover Chap 14. How they celebrate the seven dnyes of the Passeover and put a conclusion to the Festivall Chap. 15. Of the feast of Pentecost Chap. 16. Of their feast of Tabernacles Chap. 17. Of their Feast of the new Moon Chap. 18. Of the Feast of the New year how the Jewes prepare themselves to the celebration thereof how God at the same time judgeth the Israelites for their sin and offences Chap. 19. Of the feast of the New Moon Chap. 20. Of their preparation to the feast of Reconciliation Chap. 21. Of the Feast of Reconciliation Chap. 22. Of the Feast of joy and gladnesse for that they have read over the Law and the manner how they distribute their ecclesiastical Offices Chap. 23. Of their Feast of Dedication of the Temple Chap. 24. Of the Feast of Purim Chap. 25. Of their Fasting dayes Chap. 26. Of their difference of meats and of the divers boyling of them and of their Kitchin Vessels Chap. 27. Of the manner how they kill their beasts and of the corporation of Butchers and how they are licensed Chap. 28. Of their Marriages and of the Dowry bill Chap. 29. Of the divorce used among the Jews and the bill of divorce Chap. 30. How a Jewish woman divorceth her selfe from the brother of her deceased Husband Chap. 31. Of the uncleannesse of the Jewish women and the manner of their cleansing and of their carriage towards their Husbands in the time of their uncleanness Chap 32. Of the Proverb of the Jews and their manner of begging and the form of their pasport Chap. 33. Of divers sorts of diseases incident to the Jews as the plague and falling sicknesse Chap. 34. How the Jews are wont to inflict punishment one upon another for their offences Chap. 35. Touching the burial of the Jewes and how they are bewailed and lamented of their living friends and kinsfolke Chap. 36. Of their Messias which they believe is yet to come how manifold he is of the miracles which shall foregoe his comming of the Feast hee shall make to the Jews of his Marriage his Reigne the state of the Jewes in the time thereof of his death as also how Antichrist shall war against him THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE CHAP. I. Concerning the Articles of the Jewish Creed their execution of Gods Commandements and the cause of their Superstition THat which the Lord utter'd by the mouth of his Prophet Isa touching the hypocrysie obstinacy and ignorance of the Jewish Nation in these words Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honour me but have removed their hearts farre from me and their fear towards me is taught by the Precept of men Therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people even a miraculous work and a wonder for the wisdome of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid The very same we may now clearly perceive to be accomplished in every part and parcel for in their self-pleasing worship is nothing but deceit and hypocrisie and in the whole Colledge of their most learned Rabbines and Scribes thy apprehension
indeed in number but may either be encreased or diminished but he is one in Essence in every point absolute and perfect to which no other Essence can be compared in respect of its unity This Article is grounded upon that Text Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one God The third Article is that Middas hagguph bodily properties or any thing contingent to the body after such a manner that it may afterward be separated as to walk stand speak be silent sit run and many other of the same kind cannot be attributed unto God without a manifest injury hereupon it coms to passe that as often as the holy Scripture doth assign corporeall Attributes unto him that we must conceive it to be spoken of derech haabharah with an Hyperbole and Kischon bene haadam after the manner of men to no other end but that the Divine Nature may with greater facility be comprehended by the finite understanding of men this Article is grounded upon the 15. v. of the 41. chap of Deut. You saw no manner of similitude on that day that the Lord spake unto you The fourth Article is so plain that it needs no Commentary to wit that God is Kadmon the first and from all Eternity and that every thing besides is hurried about with the wheel of time and had its beginning in time This Article is grounded upon that Text Deut. 33. 27. whereby God is declared to be Elohe Kedem the God of Eternity as also upon that Isa 44. 6. I am the first and the last there is no other God besides me The fith Article is that God one in Essence is to be worshipped that we ought onely to serve him and highly to extoll praise and celebrate his Majesty that in plain terms we ought not to worship any other God for the same respect whether that which is to be worshipped be an Angel or a Saint a Star or any other thing composed of the foure Elements because every of these is his creature bounded with certain limits and therefore finite and he alone the only Creatour who as he wants beginning so he is without end that all creatures being subject and obnoxious to necessity are not of their own disposing and for this cause to have such a necessary dependance upon God who alone is guided by his own good pleasure that there is no obstacle which can hinder him from effecting that which his will suggests Again that Melitzim Intercessours or Mediatours betwixt God and man cannot lawfully be appointed which ought to be a Lesson unto us that Idolatry being far removed from us we should tender our service to God alone to which end the thorah or the Holy Scripture may serve us for an inciting Schoolmaster The sixth Article is that God out of his goodnesse and according to his meere good pleasure hath elected some out of the whole race of mankind whose mind and understanding he hath purified above others hath enriched them with the Spirit of foretelling things to come and hath so subjugated their perspicacity to the will of him their Creator that they become his oracles whereby he shews the way unto silly mortals in which they ought to walk if they intend to obtain the end of their faith the salvation of their souls The seventh Article is that Moses was the most sublime and excellent in the whole Catalogue of the Prophets that he attained unto so high a degree of wisdome humane perfection honour and dignity that he was accounted equall unto the Angels whereupon the prohecies of this one man did in many respects exceed the Prophecies of others First of all God spake unto other Prophets by some Angel who was a Mediatour between God and them but with Moses he spake with his own mout face to face as one talketh with his friend Secondly the other Prophets received their Prophesies either by dreams in the night or by some profound sleep upon the day wherein all their Members yea their whole Bodies were so stupified that onely their mind and memory did enjoy their proper operations but Moses did not receive his Prophecies after this manner but as it is written of him If there arise a Prophet among you I will appear unto him in a vision I will speak unto him in a dream Not so my servant Moses who is faithfull in my whole house I will speak to him mouth to mouth From whence it is manifest that Moses received his Prophecies in the day time even as oft as he stood before the Cherubim as it is writtten I will meet thee and I will commune with thee from above the Mercy seat from between the two Cherubims which are upon the Ark of the Testimony of all things which I will give thee in Commandement unto the children of Isroel Thirdly when the spirit of Prophesie came upon any other of the Prophets either in dreams by visions or the mission of an Angel they had as it were a certaine deprivation of their natural powers and faculties that being astonished a horrible dread came upon them and they driven into an extasie as the Holy Spirit witnesseth of Daniel the Prophet I Daniel saw alone the Vision for the men that were with me saw not the Vision but a great quaking fell upon them so that they fled to hide themselves Therefore I was left alone and saw this great Vision and there was left no strength in me for my comlinesse was turned into corruption and I retained no strength Yet I heard the voyce of his words And when I heard the voyce of his words then was I in a deep sleep upon my face and my face towards the ground But Moses suffered no invasion of feare or anxiety when he received his Prophesies whereupon the Scripture saith that the Lord spake to Moses face to face as a man speaketh to his friend even so familiarly that he was not subject to the least amazement Fourthly Other Prophets could not by any proper faculty prophecy when and after what manner they would but only then when God did not only command them but also endowed them with gifts and abilitie corres pondent to such a function whereupon it often came to passe that they did beseech God to send upon them the Spirit of Prophecy who for a certain season had not spoke in this Dialect yea sometimes did altogether leave off to Prophecy And for this cause according to the practise of Elisha they desired to heare the melodious sound of musical Instruments whereby their spirits and understandings might be recreated but Moses could prophecy at his own pleasure whensoever he was conscious of a conveniency whereupon it is writen Stay you here that I may know what the Lord will command you And the Lord spake with Moses saying c. For these reasons was Moses more worthy then the rest of the Prophets yea in that supereminent manner that no Prophet was
ever compared unto him The eighth Article is concerning the Law that it was so delivered to Moses by Gods owne mouth as it is now extant amongst them The manner how it was given whether by writing or dictated of God to Moses by word of mouth it is not needful to inquire If it proceeded from the mouth of God then is it necessary that every parcel thereof should be truth and in this respect no difference to be made amongst the particular clauses of holy Writ as these I am the Lord thy God c. and Thumia was the Concubine of Eliphaz who came of Esau as also The Sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim phut and Canaan and this Heare O Israel the Lord thy God is one God and others of the same sort seeing they are all Gods true and holy Word After the like manner the Exposition of the divine Law Mippi haggeburah came from Gods owne mouth as also all the things observable in the celebration of their bulabh or feast of Tabernacles as the blowing of Trumpets Zizim Tephillim concerning which things notwithstanding there is not one expresse word found in the Law of Moses yet are they kept no otherwise then God hath with open mouth delivered them to Moses and Moses unto us and Moses God himselfe bearing him witnesse Numb 12. 7. was faithfull in all his house And they are his own words Numb 16. 28. Hereby you shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these Works for I have not done them of mine own mind The ninth Article concerning the change of the Law that the Law of Moses shall never be abrogated or any other succeed in the place thereof and that nothing need to be added unto it or taken away from it that not one jot or title shall be annexed or perish from the holy Scripture neither that any Exposition shall make it subject to augmentation or diminution whereupon it shal come to passe that Gods holy Temple and the City Jerusalem shall again be re-edified the sacrifices and Mosaical ceremonies restored and the Jewes themselves at length to be brought back again into their own Land that they may for ever observe and keep the Law of Moses The tenth Article needs no other explication then the Scripture comments The eleventh Article is concerning the reward due to good and evil works the reward of good deeds is the world to come and life eternal the punishment of evil the souls eternal destruction and damnation whereupon it is written Exod. 32. 32 33. Yet now if thou wilt for give their sin and if not blot me I pray thee out of the booke which thou hast written And the Lord said unto Moses he who hath sinned against me him will I blot out of my booke The twelfth Article is concerning the comming of the Messias whose comming is to be expected as certaine though he long delay it yea none ought or dare to prescribe unto him certain time any determinate time for his advent neither wil they suffer the holy Scriptures to be searched into that this sulness of time in which he should come may be made manifest Hereupon their Chachamim and Rabbins deeply grounded in the Jewes Religion were wont to say tippach ruchan schel mechaschebbe Kitzim I wish they may breath out their own souls who go about to set down the time of his approach They teach that our trust and confidence is to be settled on the Messias that he is to be loved praised and petitioned that he will come quickly even as all the Prophets from Moses to Malachi were wont to do when on the contrary whosoever doubts of his comming gives the whole Law the lie yea but the whole Law doth make the miserable poor and blinde Jew a Liar who doubting that he is not come believes he shall come when he is already come in which a plain and clear promise concerning this matter is enrolled especially in parascha The 13. Article is concerning the Resurrection of the dead of which there is nothing now to be spoken whosoever therefore faithfully believes these 13. Articles is accounted one of the number of the Israelites yea such an one who is to be loved whom every one ought to commiserate and unto whom he ought to perform whâ—â—soever God the Creator hath commanded to be done to a neighbour or brother out of Sincere love unfeigned affection and brotherly kindness yea they esteem him a man of that constitution that though he commit all the offences which in the world become the fewell to set a fire the whole course of Nature with burning lusts and consume it with inbred malice and therefore suffer punishment in this World according to the nature and measure of his sin yet shall he inherit eternal life being placed in the Kalender of the sinners of Israel Whosoever destroyes the foundation on which these Articles are built or commits a trespass against any one of them by his infidelity they affirm that he hath neither part nor portion in Israel that he hath denied his God is to be abhorred like a swinish Epicure because he hath rooted up that which was once implanted in him according to the most exquisite skill of the Artificer and therefore he deserves no other then to be rejected abandoned and perish utterly of such an one speaks the Prophet Psal 139. 21. Do I not hate them O Lord that hate thee and am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee Thus hitherto I have more at large expounded the genuine sense of the Jewish Creed out of Rabbi Moses the Son of Maimon more birefly written and nominated by the Jewish Synagogue Rambam with this intent that every one might more clearly perceive and know to what end this beliefe of the Jews was directed whose Articles if any with a more serious scrutiny into their own writings search and examine he may with great facility conclude that when Rambam had brought these Articles into order and with severe threanings of extirpation of the Jewish name and the losse of their souls enjoyning every one unto the confession of them to have had no other aimâ— then the overthrow of Christian Religion among the Jewes intending to put upon it the badge of falshood for making it hatefull unto them he might for ever terrifie them from the imbracing of it Hence the Articles concerning God the Creator that he is one alone incorporeal and eternal hitherto muster up their forces that they condemning the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and Christs person might make it liable to contempt as though that we Christians by maintaining a Trinity did also infer a plurality of Gods or that Christ should not be God nor partake in his Fathers essence because it was his pleasure to assume our flesh in time not from eternity whereupon when hence it follows that he is no God it may serve for a necessary
credit that he is come so many years agoe are altogether ignorant for what end and purpose and in what degree his â—comming should be beneficial unto them for all that they expect is only this that he like another Moses and Aaron should deliver them from a terrestrial and corporal bondage and again bring them into their own land and to this end only that they might no longer drink the Wine of bitternesse among the Gentiles but be fed with milk and honey in the Land of Canaan They never dream of a deliverance from the spiritual captivity of sin for they perswade themselves that by pennance done in their own flesh they can satisfie for their own sin and by keeping of Gods Comâ—andements and their own good works merit eternal life In the 11. Article of their Belief they believe that whosoever doth many good works shall obtain a great reward in the world to come It is read in their Talmud All Israel shall have part in the world to come as it is written All thy People shall be righteous they shall receive the earth for an inheritance for ever the branch of my planting the work of my hands that I may be glorified Yet neverthelesse they shall not all share a like He that hath done many good deeds shall have a greater portion The wicked which never repented them of their sins shal be tormented in Hell or purgatory for the space of twelve months and after that shall have a portion in life everlasting but not so excellent as that of the just They who utterly deny God and profane his holy Name of which number are all those that turn to Christianity their foreskin shall grow again which done they shall the second time be circumcised as though they never had beene Jewes and shall remaine in Hell for ever The Son superviving his deceased Father is bound for a whole year to say a little Prayer called kaddisch for by the repetition of this Prayer he shall deliver his dead Father out of Purgatory such an one gives up the Ghost with great joy and incouragement knowing that he shall be delivered out of Hell by the Prayers of his Son left behind him After the same manner a honest woman may redeem her Husband But sometimes it so falleth out that the Husband â—and Wife are not equal in honesty and therefore it should seem that in the world to come the one should attain to a greater degree of happiness then the other here the Lord out of his mercy gives them both entrance together Briefly the whole nation of the Jews shal be partakers of life eternal and shal all ascend into Heaven but one shal be more glorious then another Even as a King or Duke coming into some great City he all his followers have entertainmet but in a different fashion so shall it be with the Jews in the world to come In the Article of the Resurrection of the Dead they themselves are dead for first they say it shall come to passe that only the Israelites shal be raised to life but the Christian and all other prople shall perpetually sleep in the dust Hence Rabbi ` Bechai in his Book intituâ—ed Kadhakkemach saith The Jewes have a four-fold honour and priviledge above other Nations which are these the Land of Canaan the Law the Prophets and the resurrection from the dead All these he repeats and proves in particular in hisâ— Exposition of the 18. and 33. chapters of the fiâ—t Book of Moses For the confirmation of the last priviledge he brin'gs amongst other the testimony of Isay prophecying of the Christians and other people They are dead they shall not live They are dead they shall not rise And of the Israelites Thy dead men shall live with my dead body they shall arise awake and sing you that dwell in the dust because your dew is as the dew of herbs and the Earth shal castâ— out her dead The same Rabbine out of the Talmud delivers thus much that at the great day of judgement three kinds of dead men are to arise the first of the most righteous Israelites the second of the most unrighteous and ungodly the third of a middle sort who did as much good as evil The good shall go into life everlasting the wicked into Hell and fire eternal as it is written Many of them that lie and sleep in the Dust shall arise same to everlasting life some to shame and everlasting contempt From hence sAith the Rabbine we may infer that even the wicked ones in Israel shall be co-partners in the resurrection yet shall this redound to their disadvantage seeing both body and soule shall together in Hell suffer never ceasing torments They of the middle sort shall be tortured for theirs in s in purgatory only the space of twelve months which time expired their bodies shall be consumed and a blustering wind shall scatter their ashes under the feet of the just The Talmudist proves this out of the 13. Chapter of Zachary the 8. and 9. verses for there is written It shall come to passethat in all the land saith the Lord two parts therein shal be cut off and die but the third part shall be left therein And I will bring the third part through the fire and refine them as silver is refined and will try them as gold it tried and they shall call upon my Name and I will hear them I will say it is my people and they shall say the Lord is my God And to the same purpose it is spoken 1. Sam. 2. 6. The Lord killeth and maketh alive he bringeth downe to the grave and bringeth up R. David Kimchi upon the first Psalm saith that the wicked shall not rise again but their souls shall perish together with their bodies in the day of death and in the same sence that a Resurrection only belongs to the just and godly in his Commentary upon the 26 chapter of the Prophecy of Esay Rabbi Saadiah upon the former words of the Prophet Daniel saith that the term many designs a certain number and there fore to be restringed to the godly in Israel who alone have a portion in life eternal Them that do not watch he ranks in their number who have forsaken the Lord and tâ—rned Apostates who for this very thing must be thrust into the lowest Chambers of the infernal pit there for ever to be the Emblems of ignominy To him assent Rabbi Higgaon and Aben Ezra in his Book Perusch or Exposition upon the fore-cited place of Daniel commenting that as many are to watch so many shall not watch the watchâ—men shall have life eternal they that do not watch never dying reproach The sense of the words in my judgement saith Aben Ezra is this that so many upright Jewes that pay their debts to nature in the Land of their captivity shall rise again and live when the Messias or Deliverer shall come for of
them speaks the Scriptue As the dayes of a Tree so shall be the dayes of my people that is as the Tree of life as the Chaldee renders it or as a Tree which indures for some hundreds of yeares doth not perish so my people shall remain for they who shall have a part in the resurrection at the comming of the Messias shall be so long lived as the Patriarchs from Adam to Noah So much Aben Ezra upon the place At that time they shall cherish and make themselves merry feasting their carkasses with that great fish Leviathan that huge bird Ziz and that monstrous Oxe Behemoth of which more particularly hereafter After this their jollity death the second time arrests them furnishing them with beds to sleep in till the last resurrection when they shall have an entrance into life eternal where they shall neither hunger nor thirst but be ever satiated with the beatifical vision of Gods glory and brightnesse In the first Book of Moses the 47. Chap. it is recorded of Jacob that when the time of his departure out of this Vale of tears approached he called his Sonne Joseph and entreated him not to bury him in Egypt but with his Fathers in the Land of Canaan Rabbi Salomon Jarchi upon these words saith that Jacob for three reasons would not be buried in the Land of Egypt The first was because he foresaw by the Spirit of Prophesie that in time to come store of lice should molest the Land of Egypt The second because the Israelites who died without the bounds of Canan could not rise again without a great deal of trouble being to be hurried into the â—andâ— of Promise by the hidden and deep vauâ—ts of the earth The third lest the Egyptians very prone unto Idolatry might make him the Idol which they would adore For the better understanding of this I mean here to insert what ever is written concerning it in the book called Tanchum which is an Exposition of the Law of Moles Rabbi Chelbo makes it a main question why the Patriarchs had so great a desire to be buried in the Land of Canan he gives himself a solution saying that they who shall dye in the â—andâ— of Promise shall riâ—s e first at the coming of the Messias Rabbi Hananiah confirms it and saith that whosoever dying is intombed in a strange Land shall dye a twofold death which is manifest out of the 26. chapter of Jeremy and the 6. verse where it is registred Thou Pashur and all thy family shall go into captivity thou shalt go to Babel there shalt thou dye and there be buried Hereupon Rabbi Simeon objects that that granted it must necessarily follow that all the Tzaddikim or just men should perish who were not interred in the Land of Canaan The answer is that God shall make certain caves and profound vaults in the earth by which they shall Be brought into the land of promise at their arâ—â—vall there God shall breath into them the breath of life and give them a share in the Resurrection as it is written I Will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the Land of Israel Rabbi Simeon Ben Levi saith that the Scripture speaketh expresly that God shall restore the Jews to Life upon the very instant of their return into their own Land the place he quoteth is Isa 12. v. 5. Thus saith the Lord God he that created the heavens and stretched them out he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein This is to be understood of them that shall be carried to Sion through the caves of the earth That also which is read in the Chaldee Targum upon the Canticles ought to be referred to this voâ—ntation the words are these Salomon the Prophet saith that when the dead shall arise the Mount Olivet shall cleave in the middle and all the Israelites who formerly departed this life shall issue out of it the just also who died in banishment prison or a strange Land being conveyed hither by hidden passages in the earth shall also apPear From hence we may easily conclude how beliooveful the Jews think it to return into their own Land and there be buried and so escape the turmoyle and trouble of so long a journey under so many deep rivers and rugged mountains and for this very end as I have heard out of the Jews own mouth many of their rich ones return into the Land of Canaan at this day This is that perfect firm and well grounded faith of the Jews in which they obstinately persevering make it the rock of their salvation though with great anxiety and despair Here we may see what they give to Moses and the rest of the Prophets and also what use these miserable men make of the holy Scriptures Such as their faith is such are also their works which they would seem to shape according to the strict rule of Gods commandements There profound Rabbins perswade this simple people the Jews that they of the Circumcision are Gods own chosen people who may easily fulfill not onely the morall Law comprehended in the Decalogue but the whole Law of Moses They divide the Law of Moses into six hundred and thirteen Precepts and again subdivide these into commanding and prohibiting Precepts the former according to their computation are two hundred to eight which number is according to the Rabbins anatomy equal to that of the members in mans body the prohibiting Precepts are three hundred sixty five just so many as there are dayes in the year or as it is registred in a book entituled Brand spiegel and printed at Cracovia in the Germane tongue and Hebrew character some fifteen years ago as there are veinâ— in mans body hence it shall come to passe that if a man in one of his members every day perform one of the Mandatory Precepts and omit that which the prohibiting Precept enjoyns him to avoid he shall with great facility every year and so to his dying day fulfill not onely the Decalogue but the whole Law of Moses this is that right ordering and keeping of their Laws here I may counsel Isaiah to make his complaint That the earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the Laws changed the Ordinance broken the everlasting covenant for Saint Stephen should be stoned the second time if he were now alive and should reprove the Jews for this their adulterate worship saying You stiffenecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears you do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye who have recived the Law by the disposition of Angels and have not kept it c. The Rabbins hold on and say that men are onely bound to keep those six hundred and thirteen Precepts but the women are freed from the observation
sanctifie it whether it be Oxe or Sheep it is the Lords Lastly Exod. 19. it is written The third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the People upon Mount Sinai But Exod. 20. 22. it is said You have seen that I have talked with you from Heaven These and such like contradictions are every where obvious in the Law of Moses and cannot out of it be reconciled In the second place we may with great facility prove the imperfection of this Law for who shall teach unto us the Notes of birds and other creatures who shall instruct us what fat is permitted unto us what prohibited to what height the Tabernacle is to be reared up after what figure to be built whether circumcision is barely to be administred or priah some other thing to be added or how the writing called Mezuzah which is to be fastened to the door posts and of which mention is made Deut. 6. is to be indited as also whether it should be placed upon the right hand or the left upon the top or Threshould of the Gate Furthermore who can reckon up all the kindes of licensed and prohihited meats who can shew unto us the difference to be had in boyling milk and flesh how the dead and Leapers are to be handled as also dead Beasts that we may not be polluted by touching of them who can teach us the nature and property of the Masorah of Points or Accents as also of the Letters of which some are lifted up above the words some inverted who can give us a true exposition of all these things It must then irrefragably follow that a Commentary on the written word is necessary out of which we may learn and be instructed in all these points So much the fore-named Rabbine This is the very means and plot wherby the Divel first of all seduced the Jews to forsake the Word of God and after his magisteriall manner compelled them to imbrace the Traditions of men and that with such a tenacious grasp that neither Esay Christ nor any other to this very day could by any means unclasp their arms Go to then my prudent and skilfull Rabbine where shall we find a true Exposition of the written Word In Weckers Books of Secrets no verily In Reuchlines Caballistical Art no such matter or lastly in Marcolfus much less but read the holy Talmud and there you may find it But from whence I pray thee was this Talmud sent unto us that I should give so much credit unto it as to make it the Interpreter and Expounder of Moses his Law Thou wilt answer that Moses our Master and Prophet brought it together with the written Word from mount Sinai for thinkest thou thou doting Gentile that when Moses stayd forty days forty nights upon Mount Sinai he was set to keep Geese Could not God in the space of one houre have given him the two Tables in which he had written his Law and so sent him a Packing to have prevented the Israelites in making of their Golden Calfe There was some thing more in the wind for God brought Moses into his own School and there first gave him the written Law then expounded the same unto him in that time which he spent in the mountain expressing to the life the cause measure foundation and meaning of every Commandement which Declaration finished he bids him depart the Mountain and relate all that he had heard to the children of Israel as it is written At the same time the Lord commanded me that I should teach you Statutes and Judgements These Statutes and Judgements were that Thorah begnal peh that Law delivered by Mouth to Moses which he taught Joshuah and Joshuah the seventy two Elders and by them was derived to Zachary and Malachy the last of the Prophets from whom that great Councel the Sanhedrim received it and from that time forward it was deliver'd from one unto another in the same manner that every one had learned it from his Grandfather or Grandmother But how could Moses know when either it was day or night Rabbi Bechai Exod 34. makes answer that upon the day time Moses received the written Law upon the night that which was delivered by mouth unto him a Doctourlike answer for if it had been night he could not have writ and because there was never a Chandler in the Mountain Sinai to furnish him with Candles he could not have had the use of them if he had desired it But what should be the cause that this Exposition was onely delivered by mouth and not in writing Rabbi Mosche Mikkotzi makes answer that God did it to this end that the Gentiles should not corrupt this Exposition as they had corrupted the written word therefore in the day of Judgement when both Jews and Gentiles shall stand before Gods Tribunall they shall both bring with them and present the written Law hence calling themselves the Sons of God then shall the Lord make a further enquiry and say which of you hath the Declaration of the Law given by mouth in Mount Sinai which none but the Israelites shall know of or can produce To the purpose then when there was no more any vision and prophecies had ceased in Israel God stirred up the wisest among the people who had been the Schollers of the Prophets for this end that they might institute good Ordinances among the Israelites rightly teach and propagate the Law which they did as also their successours to this very day These men made it a Statute in Israel that the name of God most worthy of praise should be blessed every day at the rising and setting of the Sunne They ordained also eighteen laudatory petitions in which every Morning and Evening we praise God and beg of him that he would bestow upon us all things necessary for us that we might rightly fear him as grace wisdome and understanding that he would vouchsafe to heal all our infirmities gather us together again thus dispersed to punish the wicked to break their horn and power in pieces but to exalt the horns of the godly and righteous to buâ—ld up Jerusalem and to restore again the Kingdome and house of David Moreover they ordained Grace before and after meat to welcome the New Moon with joy and gladnesse to pray at the sight of the Rainbow and noise of Thunder Again that in every City some certain Schools should be opened and furnished with sufficient and able men for Masters and instructors who might bring up the children of the Jews 〈◊〉 the Law of Moses That the Law of Moses should be weekly read in these their Schools lest the children of Israel should forget it That the Israelites should not eat nor drink with any people of the earth except the Christians but to flie their meat as a dog or a snake in imitation of Daniel the Prophet of whom it is recorded that he pur posed in his heart
thing as it came to passe in the dayes of Josiah the King in which the Book of the Law was for a long time lost and being found again by Hilkiah the High Priest was accounted a rare and strange novelty as it is registred in the second Book of Kings It must also follow say they that the words of Moses above mentioned according to the tenor of these words must the jews being commentators be thus understood according to the words which were heard and received out of the mouth of God the sense must be that God made a Covenant with Israel not according to the written but unwritten Law which interpretation we find in the Talmud for in the Book Tauchum in the Section Elle Toledos Noach which begins at the 9. verse of the 6. Chapter of Genesis we find it thus written Our Wise-men say that God did not write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horum verborum gratia for these words but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secundum os horum verborum according to these words which were delivered by mouth only not in writing have I made a Covenant with Israel And such are the words of the Talmud which is harsh and difficult to them that would learn it and therefore likened to darkness Esay the ninth and second where the words are The people that sate in darkness have seen a great light that is they who are much conversant in the study of the Talmud see great light for God inlightens their eyes to see how to behave themselves in respect of things permitted and not permitted clean and unclean which are not expressed to the full in the written Law A little after we read that by reason of this Covenant the World subsists because God created the day and night unto this end that the Israelites might learn the Law of Tradition or the Talmud by the benefit of them and so soon as they cease to study their Talmud day and night shall be no more Hereupon saith Jeremy If my Covenant be not with day and night and if I have not appointed the Ordinances of Heaven and Earth And what is this Covenant The Talmud saith the Jew and for this reason Jeremy a little before saith Thus saith the Lord if you can break my Covenant of the day and my covenant of the night that is when you will no longer learn and observe the Talmud then may also my Covenant be broken with David my servant Hereupon David saith in the Law of the Lord is his delight in his Law that is the Talmud will he meditate day and night Yea God himselfe hath also made a Covenant with Israel that this unwritten Law should never be subject to oblivion as it is written I saith tho Lord will make with them this Covenant my Spirit which shal come upon thee and the words that I have put into thy mouth shall never depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy children from this time for ever Here it is not written saith the Jew from thee but out of thy mouth that we might understand the unwritten Law here to be meant for the learning of which God hath placed the day and the night as two common Schools Hitherto Tanchum Moreover we read in the Sermons of Rabbi Bechai which booke he intitles Cad hakkemach a Barrel of Meale in that the six parts of the Talmud make up the Law of Tradition which is the proper foundation of the written Word considering that this without that can neither be profitably expounded nor understood Hereupon in that Tract of the Talmud called Bava meziah it is read that to study and read the Scriptures is profit and no profit to wit a small profit and not to be regarded But to learn the Talmud is an exercise worthy of a Salary and the workman shall surely receive it To commit unto memory the Gemarah which is the upshot of the Talmud is such a surpassing vertue that it admits not of an equal And this is the cause that the Jewish Rabbines and Doctors are better versed in the Talmud then the Bible I am now perswaded that I have given a full demonstration of the ground of the Jewish faith that it is not Moses but the Talmud that joy of their hearts and marrow of their bones which may put a period to the admiration of any who wonders at their blindness and superstition and they have forsaken the way of divine truth with a light heeled wantonness following the footsteps of their Ancestors in the way of lying When therfore the Divel that Father of lies for his recreation would play a game at Tick Tack with the Jews the Law of Moses being their stake he by cogging got the dice of them and would not give over till he had got the double point when he inspired into them this heart pleasing consequence Seeing the Talmud is the master point the true ground the right line according to which the written Word ought to be measured cut out squared and divided it must of necessity follow that the Doctrine of all the Rabbins should be conformable unto it as the Talmud is so true that it cannot be blemished with the least falshood so is every thing that the Rabbines do either write or teach Now that this after game or consequence did above all measure possesse the Rabbines who are such greedy hunters after glory that God and all the Prophets shall be tainted with a lie before they miss this their prey is apparent out of their following proud Luciferous speeches Rabbi Isaac who died in Portugal in the year of Christ 1493. in his Book Menoras hammaor a hath these words all that our Rabbines have taught or spoken either in their Sermons or in their mystical and allegorical Explications we believe as firmly as the Law of Moses In which if any thing be found smelling of an hyperbole or seeming clean contrary to nature and too high for the sensible faculty of any mortal we ought to ascribe it not to their words but to the defect of our understanding and although their strains be high and lofty and they seem to present unto our view things incredible yet if we rightly ballance them the truth will cast the Scales As for example we read in the Talmud that a Rabbine upon a certain time preached that the dayes shall come in which a Woman should every day bring forth grounding upon that Text she conceived and presently brought forth by presently understanding dayly which when some understood not they flouted the Rabbine and exposed him to contempt The Rabbine perceiving it answered that he spoke not after the vulgar fashion of a naturall woman but of an Hen that dayly layd an Egge an handsom put off indeed In the same place it is written all their words are the words of the living God neither shall any of them fall in vain unto the earth whereupon it is
favour of children in the Cradle and so the Jewes in my judgment understand it of some diabol cal Ghost appearing in the shape of a woman which was accustomed either to kill or carry away young Infants after their Circumcision on the eighth day This Ghost or Spirit was named Lilis from Lel which in the Hebrew tongue signifies night Concerning this matter we read a story in a Book called Bâ—n Sira not after the Edition of the learned Paulus Fagius but after the Jews own impression The copy that I have Printed at Constantinople is the same with that which Sebastian Munster makes mention of in the end of his Cosmography and out of which he transcribed the Hebrew History of the Kingdome of Prester John which is also printed in the end of that Copy which I bought of a Jew inhabiting those parts who had got it out of Munsters Library for Munster was professor of the holy tongue in this City of Basile where also he was buried In this Book I say it is recorded that when God had created Adam alone and placed him in Paradise he said it was not good for Man to be alone therefore out of the Earth he formed a Woman like unto him and called her Lilis They presenly fell at odds began to brawl and chide the Woman saying to the Man I will not be subject unto thee and the Man replying neither will I be a Vassal to thee â—ut exercise dominion over thee for thou ought to obey She presently makes answer we are both equall thou art not better then I am nor I better then thou we were both fashioned out of the earth and thus shall they continue in strife and variance At last when Lilis perceivs that there is no hopes of agreement she pronounceth the name Schem hamphorasch which is the holy name Jehovah together with its secret and Cabalisticall interpretation against which Luther writ a Book and instantly upon the pronunciation flies into the air then Adam said unto God O Lord of the whole world the woman which thou gavest me is flown away from me Upon the hearing hereof God sent three Angels after the woman Senoi Sansengi and Sanmangeloph bidding them tell the woman that if she would return and be obedient unto her Husband all should be well if not that every day an hundred of her children should give up the Ghost These Angels having received this their commission presently were upon the wing and made after her and overtook her upon a most tempestuous place of the Sea even there where the Egyptians were afterwards drowned proclaiming unto her the will of the Almighty she refusing to return the Angels threatned to stifle and drowne her in the waters unless she would obey and go back unto her Husband Then began Lilis to pray and beseech them that they would let her passe because she was created to this end that she might torment and put to death little Infants the eight day after their nativity if they were males but upon the 20. if they were females Which so soon as the Angels perceived they attempt to force her to return to her Husband which Lilis fearing swore unto them that whensoever she should find the names or shape of these three Angels either written or painted upon any scrowl parchment or any such like matter that then she had no power over Infants and that she would not hurt them furthermore she refused not to embrace â—he condit on that every day one hundred of her children should die the death and so accordingly it fell out for upon one day a whole Centenary of her off-spring or so many yong Divels went unto their long home And this is the cause that we imprint the names of these Angels upon certain sorowls of parâ—hment use to hang â—hem about the necks of our Infants that Lilis beholding that which is written may remember her oath not hurt them Thus much we have transcribed out of Ben Sira It may very well go for a truth that they hang such scrolls about their childrens necks seeing they daily perform many a strange cure by the help of them In what place soever any woman is brougbt to bed we may find the forementioned picture as also the names of those Angels who are appointed for the safeguard of us mortalls written above the doore of the same But from whence had the learned Rabbines this their pleasant History this quaere is answered in the book called Brand spigelium in these words The rib which the Lord had taken from man he made it a woman that she as a rib taken from his side should be liable to his service hence the Rabbines comparing them words God created man in his own image in the image of God created he him male and female with those It is not good that man should be alone I will make him an help meet for himself make a grand question what became of that first woman who was created at the same time that Adam was and they salve it thus the first woman of all whose name was Lilis being too highly conceited of her own worth would not be obedient to her husbands command because the earth was a common mother to them both the Lord therefore divorced her from Adam and gave unto him another who was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone who might follow obey and serve him as a member of his own body So from Brand spigelium So soon as this Witch or night hagge is by these their exorcismes banished and expelled the room and the pangs of child birth begin to seâ—se upon the woman and the little infant ready to weep out a salutation to his fellow mâ—rtalls it is first of all provided that a Christian midwife be not sent for for this is most severely proâ—ibited in their Law unlesse in case of necessity when the absence of a Jewish midwife must force a dispensation of the Statute neither is this licenced unlesse the woman to be delivered be guarded about with a whole Troup of her own nation for they greatly suspect the Chriâ—s tian women that they should either neglect their office or else kill their children while they are a coming out of the womb If the birth be fortunatâ— so that a man child be born into the world then nothing but the mounting echoes of joyfull acclamations are heard in their habitations the father of the child makes speed into the Market there to buy fat Geese crammed Capons flesh and fish of all sorts not omitting a cup of good liquor against the feast of the Circumcision which is to be celebrated the eighth day accordingly as God By Moses enjoyned them In the mean time the ten are called for They must be neither more nor fewer to the Circumcision of the Infant who ought all to be above the age of thirteen years and this number in their own language they term Minian a The night following
the womans delivery seven of them which were invited and many times some others also come to visit the mother of the child who have a great supper provided for Them which ended they roar and sing all the night over play at Cards and Dice and invent many unheard of fooleries The men drink themselves blind thinking by this means to solace the woman in child bed and comfort her against that sorrow and grief which might possesse her at the Circumcision of the infant as also lest some misfortune might happen unto her upon that night This is the ordinary custome but on the contrary many of the learned and godly sort pour out servent prayers perlwade him that is to circumcise the infant to sobricty that his hand may be steady while he is a doing his office 1. He that circumcâ—seth is called in the Hebrew Mohel who ought to be a Jâ—w 2. A man not a woman 3. One well exercised in cutting for otherwise the rich men among the Jews will not approve of him using this Proverb He shall not learn to cut another mans beard by shaving mine Such an one as is not skilfull in the art give mony to the poorer sort of the Jews that he may try his cunning by practising two or three times upon some of his children A man may easily distinguish the Mohel or him that câ—rcumciseth from another by his long nails pointed at the top The knife where with they cut off the foreSkin may be made of any thing which is apt to cut as stone glasse or wood but they commonly use knives made of iron much like to Barbâ—rs Rasours The rich ennammel their knives with golâ— and beâ—et them with Jewels They are accustomed to wash their children before they circumcise them and then to wrap them in their swadling clâ—uts that they may be cleanly in the time of Circumcision for otherwise it is not lawfull to say any prayer for them Hence if the child in the time of Circumcision through the vehemency of grief and tears beray himself he who circumciseth will not play the Priest and pray for him untill he be washed and swadled up in other linnen The ordinary time appointed for the Circumcision of the child is the eight day following the Nativity reckoning from the very moment of his Nativity and this computation commonly begins at the Sun rising yet notwithstanding for the most part they cut away the foreskin while it is yet morning and while the child is fasting because such plenty of blood will not issue from the child then as at other times Upon the eighth day all things necessary for Circumcision are graced with an early preparation First of all two chairs are brought into the room or one at least yet of such a latitude and bignesse that two may with ease sit in it which is also adorned with Tapestry and silken and velvet furniture and that according to every persons ability This is done either in the Synagogue or common School or in some private Conclave if it be done in the Synagogue then ought the Chair to be placed near unto the Ark anciently styled the Ark of the Covenant in which the book of the Law is kept for such a place is holy in esteem Then the Godfather of the child which is to be circumcised draws near and seats himself in the foresaid Chair the Mohel or he that is to circumcise the child being placed near unto him After them follow other of the Jews one of which with a loud voice gives warning that they should with all expedition bring the things requisite for the Circumcision of the infant the SuMmons ended some certain youths hasten to the place one of them carrying a great Candlesticks In which are twelve wax lights burning to represent the twelve Tribes of Israel next in order unto these come two other boys carrying two Goblets full of Claret wine another brings the knife wherewith the child is to be circumcised another one Bason full of sand and a third another filled with the oyl of Baâ—some in which are sleeped some Linnen rags which the Mohel applyes to the sore of the newly circumcised infant These drawing near the Mohel cast themselves into a certain ring or circle that they may better see and learn his cunning These places the youths purchase with mony some others also there be that flock thither with odours and sweeet meaâ—s made by the Art of the Apothecary with strong and delicious wine Carrawaies Cinnamon and such like that they may comfort and refresh the Father or Godfather or any other of the assistants so be it that any of them should fall into a swound by some conceived grief for the cutting off the foreskin All things thus in a readinesse the Godfather of the child placeth himself in one of the forementioned chairs or if there be but one in the one part thereof opposite to him sits the Mohel and sings that Song registred in the second book of Moses which the Israeliâ—es sung when they had passed through the Red sea with many more oF The same sort then the women bring the infant to the gate when the whole Congregation rising up the Godfather goes and takes the child from them sitting down with him in his seat again saying BarUch habba that is Blessed is he that cometh this word habha hath in it somewhat Cabalistical the Letters whereof He Beth Aleph in numeration make eight so that the mystery must be this Blessed is he that comes the eight day to be cirrcumcised They have also a certain abbreviation or word every Letter of which notes another word which is this Hinne ba Eliahu Behold Elijah cometh who is called the Angel of the Covenant which thing the Jews conceiting are of opinion that Elias comes with the Child seats himself in the empty Chair to see whether they rightly observe and keep the covenant of Circumcision as it is written The Messenger of the Covenant whom you seek behold he shall come saith the Lord of Hosts forwhen at a certain time the children of Israel were prohibited to make their sons Jews or to cuâ—away the foresk in of their flesh then Elijah the Prophet plunged in sorrow hid himself in a certain Cave where he purposed to end his dayes Then the Lord spake unto him and said What doest thou here Elijah who answered I have been very zealous for the Lord of Hosts for the children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant that is the Covenant of Circumcision Then God promised Elijah that he should alwayes be present from thenceforth at the Circumcision of every male that he might know that the children of Israel would no more forsake the Covenant but perform it according to every circumstance thereof as it is written The Angel of the Covenant shall come So soon as Elias his chaire is brought into the room then are they bound to say in expresse terms This seat is provided
may see and witnesse that she washeth her self according as she ought It is dangerous in their account to send for a Christian woman for in such an one they dare not put confidence Though it be winter time yet ought these washings to be performed in cold water yea though it be hard frost yet if in any place they can claim custome it may be lawfull for them to intermingle cold water and hot or if there be any hot baths as there is in many Countries into these the women may lawfully enter and wash themselves Who desires to know any more concerning this matter let him peruse a certain little book written in the Germane tongue and Hebrew Character called Franwen Buchlein or the book of women which because it contains a brief description of their conditions his palate may there find wished content and a plenary satisfaction In the next place we are opportunely invited to look into the manner how the first born is redeemed out of the hand of the Priest That son which the mother in time past brought forth according to Moses Law was holy unto the Lord and ought to be redeemed from the hand of the Priest as it is written Whatsoever openeth the Matrix is mine all the first born of thy sons thou shalt redeem and in imitation of their ancestors the Jews do redeem their first born the manner of the redemption followeth The one and thirtieth day following the Nativity of the child his father sends for the Cohen or Priest as also many other good friends to accompany him before whom he sets the Infant upon a Table and layes down beside him a certain sum of mony or so much goods as can equalise it in value which is the quantity of two Florens of Gold then he saith unto the Priest my wife hath brought forth her first begotten son and the Law requires that I should present him unto thee then the Cohen or Priest answering saith Dost thou give this thy son and leave him unto me To whom the Father shall reply yes upon this the Priest asks his Mother whether she ever had a child before that time or if at any time she proved abortive if the mother say no then the Priest questions the Father which of the two be dearer unto him his first born or his mony then the Father answers that he esteems his first-born babe above all riches in the world then the Priest taking the money and laying it upon the Infants head saith this is thy first begotten son whom the Lord would have redeemed as it is written And those that are to be redeemed from a moneth old thou shalt redeem according to thy estimation for the money of five shekels after the shekel of the Sanctuary which is twenty gerahs Then turning himself unto the child he saith when thou wast in the womb of thy mother thou wast then in the power of thy heavenly Father and they earthly Parents but now thou art in my hand and power who am the Priest thy father and mother desire to redeem thee because thou art the first begotten and holy unto the Lord as it is written Sanctifie unto me all the first-born among the children of Israel that first openeth the womb as well of man as of beast for it is mine Now this mony shall serve in thy stead and be thy redemption seeing thou art the first-born and this shall be given unto the Priest If I have redeemed thee as I ought then shalt thou ' be redeemed if I have failed in the peâ—formance of my office notwithstanding thou being redeemed according to the Law and after the manner of the Jews shalt grow up in the fear of God to Matrimony and the practise of good works Amen If the father chance to die before the one and thirtieth day after the childs Nativity be fully come then the mother is not bound to redeem her child and therefore she puts a scroll or plaâ—e of gold about his neck in which it is written This is the first-born son but not redeemed the son himself being bound to redeem himself out of the hands of the Priest when he shall come to full age Before I conclude this Chapter I will relate a certain History which is recorded in the Gemurah or Talmud concerning a certain stranger or proselyte who by a miraculous kind of Circumcision obtained an inheritance in the other World and departed this a good Jew A certain King of Rome as we read in tract de idolatria c. 1. was sometimes an heavy friend unto the Jews and desiring utterly to put out their name from under heaven and to banish them his Kingdome he calls his counsell and thus bespeaks them suppose a man â—aith he hath an old ulcer in his body in which the â—lesh doth putriâ—ie whether will he chuse to cut away the rotten flesh to regain his health or suffer it to remain there still to his perpetuall grief and torment These thingâ— spoke the King against the jews who had for long time sojouâ—ned in his Kingdome and grievously molested his Subjects One of the Councel by name Ketijah hearing the Kings words and perceiving whether they tended made answer Adoni which is to say my Lord thou art not able to destroy or banish the Jews for of them it is written Ho ho come forth and flie from the Land of the North saith the Lord for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven saith the Lord that is the world may even as possibly subsist and be without winds as without the Jews wherefore thou canst not banish the Jews out of thy Realm and if thou couldest prevail so much as to bring it to passe the common voice of the whole world would proclaim thee being brought to extreme poverty for a tyrannicall King Upon these words the King answered thou hast said that which is right and now seeing it is enacted that whosoever overcomes the King in his answer shall be buried quick in a heap of sand that there he may be choakeda and perish thou who hast put me to a non plus which is a scandall to my person and set at naught and vilified my Kingdome shall taste of the appointed punishment When he was carried away to the place of execution there was a certain Matron seen in Rome of an excellent portraiture crying out Wo unto that ship which is about to strike sail the Custome unpayed by which words the Matron intimated thus much that Ketijah who was ready to suffer death in the Jews cause and so consequently to obtain eternall life in another world had not as yet payed his toll money that is was not made a Jew by Circumcision Upon the instant of this vociferation some say that he snatched a knife and cut off his own foreskin others that he burning with too ardent zeal catched hold of his foreskin bit it off with his teeth and then with
a loud voice said I have now at last payed my Custome when they would not give him any respite but burn him in all haste he cryed the second time saying that he bequeathed all his goods and possessions to that most learned man Rabbi Akibah as to his lawfull heir whereupon this voice was heard from heaven Ketijah thou son of Schalom eternal life is provided for thee From hence every one may learn what a precious thing Circumcision is and what a good deed it is for any one to legasie all his goods unto a Jew truly there is nothing lost where a man for an hundred crowns may gain a thousand In the same Chapter of the Talmud the same men boast how Caesar Antoninus caused himself to be circumcised how he departed this life a Jew indeed and how that happened unto him which is here related Not far from the Emperours Palace dwelt a certain famous and most expert Rabbine from whose houses to the Emperours porch came a certain hidden passage under the earth by the benefit of which they oftentimes had private conference Upon this occasion a great desire to be instructed in the Law and Religion of the â—ews invaded the mind of the Emperour and for this cause every day once he repaired to the Rabbine and heard the Law at his mouth and because he would not go unto the Iew without attendance yet also would not in the mean time be disclosed he alwayes chose two for his companions whereof one he stabbed with his dagger at the the entrance into the Rabbines house the other he made to drink of the same cup at his return to his own palace giving also in charge to the Rabbine that he should have no man in his company when he the Emperour came to visit him When therefore Caesar on a certain time had found together with the Jew a stranger whose name was Rabbi Chanina Bar Chamma which Rabbine was an holy man and one of their prime ones he was so enraged that he burst out into this interrogation Did not I say unto thee look that thou have none in thy company when I shall come unto thee To whom the Rabbine replyed My Lord and Emperour this is not a man but a good spirit if he be a spirit saith Caesar let him go and signifie so much to my servant who lies and takes his rest without before the gate speaking of the servant which he had killed with his owâ— hands that he make hast to come unto me when Rabbi Chanina perceived the Emperours servant to be dead then he began to fear be afraid not knowing how to shape an answer aâ— also thinking it very behovefull that Caesar should not be found guilty of the murder in these melancholy dumps he fell upon his knees and with the importunity of prayer becomes so wearisome unto God that the Emperours servant was restored to life which thing the Emperour having taken notice of such an excessive admiration at the Religious piety of the Jewish Nation pâ—ssessed his soul that from thenceforth he became a Serving man at his Pedagogues Table Yea moreover when the Rabbine at night would please to visite his Couch the Emperour bowing himselfe at his bed side became his Footstool that his Master the Rabbine might with more facility stretch his limbs upon his bed of Down the Rabbine indeed in many kinds strived to repel the tendered service but all in vain for the Emperor did not only perform these earth kissing Congees with an humility of mind floating in the lowest ebb but also wished it might be his happiness to be his footstool in another world At length the Jews had an ocular demonstration that this Emperor before he entred the tyring room of the grave did receive the sign of circumcision professed himselfe a Jew and died in this profession Many examples of the same sort are every where obvious in the writings of the Jews declaring that many Christians both of high and low degree turning Apostates to Christianity have imbraced Judaism and so have obtained the salvation of their souls if we may believe it But in the last place what was the Prophets censure of these circumcised Saints and in what esteem had they their persons Jerem. All the Gentiles are circumcised and all the house of Israel circumcised in heart Moses Circumcise the fore-skin of your heart and be no more stisf necked Jerem. To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear behold their ear is uncircumcised and they cannot hearken behold the Word of the Lord is unto them a reproach they have no delight in it Stephen a Christian Ye stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do alwayes resist the holy Ghost as your Fathers did so do ye Paul the Apostle He is not a Jew that is one outwardly neither is that circumoision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew that is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God How then are all the first born of Christians yea all faithsull Christians redeemed S. Peter answers Ye were not redeemed with silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Fathers but with the precious bleud of Christ as a Lamb without blemish and Without spot S. Paul teacheth us by whom we have redemption Even by hiâ— bloud that is the remission of our sins But what doth circumcision hurt the Christians S. Paul answers If the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the Law shall not his his uncircumcision be accounted for circumcision and shall not uncircumcision which is by nature if it fulfill the Law judge thee who by the Letter and circumcision art a transgressor of the Law CHAP. III. shewing how the Jews instruct their children in the fear of God WHen any one of the Jewish women giveth suck then she ought to eat good and wholsome meats and such as are easie of digestion to this end that the Infant may find and suck from the teats good milk by which his heart and stomack may not be troubled with obstructions but sustained and nourished whereby he may sooner come to maturity and may more easily obtain vertue manners wisdome and understanding The Chachamim a which are the most profound Wâ—â—ters among the Jews have with great diligence reiterated their commands that the Mother should have a special care that the Infants be not at any time destitute of good meat and drink thinking and not without reason this to be a matter of the greatest moment thence foreseeing that they quickly comming to their growth may prove men of courage and such as are able to do God good service as it is written The Lord shall establish thee an holy People unto himself as he hath sworn unto thee if thou wilt keep the Commandements of the Lord thy God and walk in
his glory as saith the Prophet Esay A singular care is also to be had that no man put on his shirt or any other of his garments out of order he must put on his right foot shooe first but in tying of them begin with the left But if any man have a pair of shooes which are destitute of shooe-ties then must he first fit the left foot then the right at night the left foot shooe ought first to be put off as that worthy man Rabbi Jochanan hath taught and commanded When any one is altogether ready and invested from top to toe then must he leave his bed-chamber his head being bowed toward the ground and his mind full of devotion in remembrance of the Temple of Jerusalem now waste and desolate always provided his head be covered and his feet shod yea the-whole body cloathed seeing the Majesty of the Almighty always hovereth over his head and because it is scandalous and an enemy to good manners to come naked into the sight of any one After this every one drawing aside unto some secret place shall endevour to purge his belly so far as is needfull and to take all pains possible that he may come pure and cleanly to morning prayer as it is written Prepare thy self to meet thy God O Israel and David saith Praise the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy name in which place according to the Exposition of the Rabbines thus much is intimated that the very intrails ought to be clean and empty It is not lawfull to name the holy name of God unlesse it be done with all cleanlinesse which is the reason that every one must carefully endeavour that his garments be not pollutedâ— in his devotions he ought to be very bashfull and modest yea though he be alone in some dark and private place as it is written humble thy self to walk before thy God that is the Rabbines being Commentators in a secret place No man must be conscious of so small providence as too long to defer the works of nature for it is not a sin onely so to do but also may greatly endanger his belly and make it liable to rupture I do not here mention that the soul by these means procures a stinking breath and other consequent discommodities It is written in Parscha Kedoschim You shall not make your souls abominable but ye shall be holy unto me which the Rabbines interpret of them who against nature stop the work of nature saying that whosoever makes a delay to salute the lakes when the excrement is ripe for an egresse he is unclean and a transgressour of this Commandement in cleansing of himself he must use the left hand not the right for with this he judiciously handles the holy Scripture with this he writes the holy names of God and Angels When any one is in a private place he must be carefull with an exact diligence that the suffer not the word of God and his Commandements to come into his remembrance and much lesse to account it as a thing dispenced withall to name any name expressing a Deity the reason according to the wisest of the Rabbinicall Rable being this because God will shorten his dayes who repeats his name in secret The Schollers of Rabbi Sira upon a time demanded of him how it came to passe that he lived so long to whom he answered I had never since I was born the least meditation of any thing contained in the Word of God neither did his name ever proceed out of my mouth in an impure place When any one is to ease himself he may turn his face either towards the North or South but by no means toward the East or West because a due reverence ought to be had of and tendred unto the holy Temple at Jerusalem to which we ought alwayes to turn the face not out back parts Enough of this I omitting also their morals and such like trash I will show unto you how the Iews prepare themselves to morning prayer by the washing of their hands The Chachamim and skilfull Rabbines write that no man ought to touch his own body untill his handâ— be washed and that in respect of the great danger that may ensue thereupon for the hand in the morning is a thing most impure and venomous by reason of the unclean evil spirits which rest upon the hands untill they be drenched in water If any one touch his eyes with such hands they shall become blind if his ears they shall be stopped with deafnesse if his nostrils they become obnoxious to a continuall distillation if his mouth it shall be vexed with stinking if his hands they shall be clothed with scabs When any one washeth himself he holds the right hand under the Ure and pours the water thrice upon it and after that the leâ—t in the like manner for without this Ceremony it is not allowable that the one hand should touch the other No man in washing ought to be sparing of water for Rabbi Chasda saith that whosoever useth plenty of water in the washing of his hands shall be a man of great riches They must lift their hands on high in time of washing lest the unclean water resulting out of the Bason should repollute them In the next place they ought to wash their mouth and face because this was created according to Gods own image as it is written God created man in his own likenesse according to the image of God created he him The Rabbines illustrate the whole matter by this similitude An Artificer one who is Master of his trade makes some goodly vessel and therewith gratifies one of his dearest friends This his friend knowing of his approach and seeing the Crafts man coming to his house takes the vessel scours and makes it as clean as he can possible left the workman should be wroth and angry that he kept not this his handy work from filth and pollution In like manner any Jew who every day in the morning frequents the Synagogue appears in the presence of God his Creator and is bound to worship and honour him ought also accurately to wash his face lest the chief workman should be angry to behold his creature disfigured with uncleannesse In Bereschith Rabba which is an Exposition upon Genesis the Rabbines winnowing that Sentence of Salomon A mercifull man doth good to his own soul affirm it also to be behoveâ—ull for him to keep himself cleanly for the good of his body How can any call upon God with his mouth when as yet it is filled with spittle and other filthy matter A Jew being about to wash must do it over a bason or some other vessel not over the earth which done it is not lawfull for him to pour out his water where any one treadeth yet are there found men who practise the contrary for the promotion of their art in poysoning and skill in Magick The
help them to judge deStroy and utterly to extirpate from the face of the earth the Mountain of Esau that is to say the Christians together with their Kingdome they stiling the Christians Edomites and the Roman Monarchy the Kingdome of Edom and so shall bring them back into their own Land flowing with milk and honey what the reason is that they call uâ— Christians Esauites or Edomites I will at large inform the Reader in another place I will only insert thus much in this present Chipter which they write and teach in their secret and hidden books which they will not suffer to come into the hands of Christians that the soul of Esau passed from his body into that of Christs and that Christ was no lesse wicked then Esau was and that we are no better whence ever we are not without great cause called Edomites who put our trust and confidence in him Then they begin to sing God shall be King over the whole earth In that day there shall be one God and his Name shall be one as it is written in thy Law O God Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one God This they â—abble out as a thing clear contrary to our Christian profession as though we worshipped more Gods then one and were wont to give him more names then one as the namâ— of Christ Next in order follows a short Prayer calâ—ed Krias schmah taken out of the fift Book of Moses and when they read that verse in the Hebrew language Hear O Israol the Lord our God is one God and come unto the last word thereof which is Echad signifying One they toss up and down and bandied from mouth to mouth with eyes cast up to Heaven for the space of halfe an hour yea sometimes for an whole hour together and comming to the last letter thereof which is Daleth the whole Congregation doth bend and turn their heads successively towards the four corners and winds of the earth hereby signifying that God is King in every place yea throughout the whole world for the letter Daleth by reason of its place in the Hebrew Alphabet stands for the number of four Furthermore the word Ecthad comprehends in it two hundred forty five other words to which they superadding these three Hael elohechem Emeth your God is truth the number amounts to two hundred forty eight the very number of the members in mans body so that if these several Prayers be said for every member in particular then the whole man is strongly guarded against all manner of evil Whosoever repeats the foresaid verse three times shall be safe from the Divel for that verse begins with the Letter Schin and ends in Daleth in this manner Schema Israel Adonai Eloheim Adonai Echad which two letters conjoyned make up the word Sched which signifies a Divel They repute also this Prayer as a Prayer of singular worth and sanctity by which may be wrought many miracles whence it comes to pass that they are extreamly superstitious in a repetition of the same every morning and evening It is registred in the Talmud that upon a certain time when it was commanded by open Proclamation that the Jews any where having a Synagogue should not publickly teach and make profession of their faith Rabbi Akibha not regarding the command ceased not to read and preach it openly in the Synagogue upon which he was apprehended and for the fact cast into Prison When the Tormentors were about to bring him to the stake to be burnt they first of all curried his corps with an iron horsecombe wounding and tormenting him after a lamentable manner Yet notwithstanding Rabbi Akibha remained constant praying without intermission And when the time of the day came wherein he was to say that Prayer Krias Schema he begun it with great boldness At the last his Scholers bespoke him and said Most dearly beloved Master thou hast prayed sufficiently now yield thy selfe and take thy death patiently To whom he made this answer I have had this saying in great esteem all my life long Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy body and thus I have understood it that though any one should pluck out my heart and rent my body in pieces yet I ought ever to determine this with my selfe never to cease to love him Therefore when God hath confirmed this in me should I cease to worship him and to bring this Prayer to an end which is directed unto him Therefore holding on in this his prayer he never left repeating the word Echad until his soul forsook his body Then was there a voice heard in the air saying Blessed art thou O Rabbi Akibhah because thy soul departed breathing the word Echad now shalt thou have an entrance into life eternal and shalt come into that light of the Garden of Paradise Amen Selah They have also another prayer like unto the former which they call Schemon Esre i. e. eighteen because it contains so many particular thanksgivings and prayers of praise therein Concerning the sanctity and holinesse of this and the former prayer the Jews have written many a large Tract which I leaving to bespeak their own worth will neither praise nor any ways disgrace The last of these every one repeats twice a day and he that is their Chaplain or Reader in the Synogogue doth publickly sing it by himselfe two or three several times The Jews esteem highly of it hoping that hereby they shall obtain remission of all their sins When it is their will and pleasure to poure out unto God they are bound to do it standing and with such a posture that one foot may not insist more upon the ground then the other in imitation of the Angels of whom it is written And their feet were streight feet This is handled more at large in Rabbi Alphes in his first Chapter and in their Minhagim and in many other books When they say those words holy holy holy Lord God of hosts the earth is full of his glory being a parcel of the Prayer Schemon Esre by them named Keduscha a then they caper three times together leaping up as though by this their gesture they did indeavour to become like unto the Angels who were the first Choristers that sung this Song of praise Others say that because these words in the Prophecy of Esay immediatly follow And the posts of the doors were shaken at the voice of him that spake it is both meet and convenient that a man should touching move himself in the quavering of such an Angelical Anthem The Hebrew Doctors write that whosoever dare to mutter the least syllable while the Prayer Schemon Esre is a saying shall after his death have coals of fire given him to eat as it is written in the fourth verse of the thirtieth chapteâ— of Job for so Rabbi Salomon expounds the words Rabbi Tanchum saith in the name of Rabbi
for the Rabbines in their Masseches Berachos upon those words When all the people saw the thunders and the lightnings and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain burning the people saw and were afraid and stood afar off dispute and say that the people through great fear and amazement was in a moment of time three miles backward from the mountain Sinai The chief Glosse-monger Rabbi Salomon Jarchi writes in his glosse upon this Text that the people kept back twelve miLes of which David spoke saying The Kings of the Armies did flie and sheâ— that tarried at home divided the spoil and then came the good Angels and ministring Spirits and brought the people back unto the Mountain When they are about to depart the Temple or Synagogue then they speaking within themselves quietly and without the least noise they say a certain Prayer beginning Alenulesh abeach It is meet that we should praise the Lord who is above all and in an excellent degree to celebrate him because he hath created all things and not made us like unto the rest of the Nations likewise that he hath not made us as other generations of the World and hath not appointed us an inheritance like unto theirs neither is our lot as their lot neither as the lot of their whole multititude Here are some words omitted in their Books of Common-prayer and that by the Commandement of the Magistrates of Italy where their Books are wont to be and for the most part are at this day imprinted The things omitted were some blasphemous sayings against our Saviour which are found expressed in the ancient copies of which I have one which was imprinted at Augusta by a Jewish Printer called Chajim in the year of Christ 1534. In other copies instead of the words omitted there is left an empty space about the length of one line to this end that the children of the Jews and others who are ignorant may be warned to enquire what saying it is that is there omitted which when they do some relate the words unto them or otherwise write them in the margent of the Book as I have observed them to have practised in many of their Prayer books the words left out are these Who bend their knee and crouch to that which is vanity and foolishness and adore another God who cannot help these words they utter against Christ wherefore they spit upon the earth in the mouthing of them But we bend and bow our knees yea our whole man to that King who is King of Kings to God holy and blessed for ever who stretcheth out the heavens establisheth the earth whose glory and chair of estate is in heaven and the seat of whose power is in the highest heavens he only is our God and there is no other besides him These things thus finished the Jew now going out Of the Synagogue saith O Lord God lead me by thy justice by reason of those that lay wait for me in secret make plain thy way before my face Preserve me in my going out and my comming in from this time forth for evermore They must go out of the Synagogue in the posture of a Crab sish creeping backward through the Gate thereof and that their back part should not be towards the holy Ark in which the book of the Law is laid up to which they ought to exhibit a certain kind of reverence by turning their face thereunto The Rabbines upon those words of the Prophet Ezekiel Who have turned their back unto the Temple of the Lord have delivered thus much in the Talmud that a grievous and heavy punishment was inflcted upon the Priests because in going out of the Temple of the Lord they turned their back parts towards the ark of the Covenant wherefore the case standing thus we ought to depart out of the Temple with all fear and reverence even as a servant being about to take his leave of his Maister doth it with a retrograde crowching submission and submiss lowliness They must not run out of the Synagogue lest some might think him that runneth to be weary with praying and to rejoyce that it is now lawfull for him to depart They must go out with decurtate steps for if any one doth this God numbreth his steps and gives him a great reward as it is written Thou hast numbred my steps c. If any in his going forth chance to meet a woman or a damsel whether she be one of the Jews or Christians he ought to shut his eyeâ— and turn away his face from beholding her he must not afford her the common curtesie of a Complement lest thereby taking occasion of longer discourse he should be woed to the entertainment of lustfull notions and evil cogitations Concerning the serious manner of praying they write that whosoever wil pray attentively ought to have his head and heart covered to incompass his body with a girdle in the middle lest his heart by the sight of the secret part should be inveigled with wicked thoughts He must turn his face towards Canaan and the City Jerusalem his feet equally placed upon the Earth as abovesaid He ought to put his hand upon his heart in that manner that his right hand may rest upon his left withall bowing his head with great humility as it is written Let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto the Lord in the heavens and again My life is alwayes in my hand yet do I not forget thy Law In time of prayer none must yawn belch or spit yet if he must spit on necessity then ought he privately to receive it in his Handkerchiff and modestly to cast it behind him or upon his left hand but not before him or upon his right for there stand the Angels invisible whom if any should beray with this excrement he should be guilty of an heynous offence It is not lawfull for any to let a scape in time of Prayer if he do it against his will then ought he to suspend the act of praying until the ill savour thereof be gone If the wind urge him so much and so vehemently that he must of necessity let fly then shall he go some four paces aside set a packing and instantly thereupon saying O Lord of all the earth thou hast created me full of holes Whiâ—h I cannot shut up all our modesty is open and known unto thee our life is full of shame we are nothing but worms and Maggots Sneesing in time of Prayer if it come from the parts below is an ill sign if from above a good one He that beginneth once to pray must not break off in the middle of his Prayer yea although the King of Israel should come and salute him yet he may not answer him though a Serpent took him by the heel and bit him yet ought he to continue in his devotions yet there is a certain dispensation which licenseth a man to give way unto a
churlish Oxe and for fear of him to cease praying til he be gone and past It is not lawfull for him that prayeth to touch his naked body with his hands yet may be touch his hands and neck If in this time he be so necessitated as to scratch his body he must do it upon the garments He that prays must move his whole body hither and thither as it is written All my bones shall say O Lord who is like unto thee The Chanter also of the Synagogue in the time of divine Service ought to pray standing in some hollow low deep place and to read the Prayer distinctly and with as loud a voice as he can possible I have seen with mine eys the Reader fall down upon his knees before the Pulpit because in that place the earth was level and not one place lower then another and to have said Prayers with as shill a voice as he could have done from an higher seat These Prayers they pour out of a collected narrow heart chiefly to this end that they may obtain the remission of their sins and that according to the example of David saying Out of the depth have I called unto thee O Lord and finally which is the perfection of all every one ought to labour with all his strength to answer Amen at the end of every prayer Hence it is written in the Booke Tanchuma that it was the saying of Rabbi Jehuda that whosoever saith Amen in this world shall bee accounted worthy to say Amen in the world to come hence is that of King David Blessed be the Lord God of Israel Amen Amen By which double Amen he notes unto us that one Amen is to be said in this world another in that which is to come The wisest among the Jews say that whosoever shall say Amen with great attention shall bring to pass that thereby their redemption shall appoach with all speed and suddenly be accomplished How I pray you when Amen is pronounced after the manner that it ought to be then God shakes his head and saith Wo unto those children who are banised from their Fathers Table And how much comfort is it to a Father thus to be praised of his children thereupon God begins to think of the deliverance of his people out of their captivity and that he ought not to do otherwise for though he hath put and exiled them out of his sight for their sins yet he suffers with them and the grief of his children vexeth him at the heart Upon which Rabbi Juda hath this simily Even as a Mother having a Daughter who is immodest and disobedient who also hath been got with child by some or other casts her out of her doors for her unchast life and useth much unmerciful carriage towards her yet in the hour of child-birth she suffers and laments with her after a wonderful manner even so God hath sent us into banishment for our sins yet having compassion he will redeem us when we seriously pray unto him It was formerly noted that they ought every day to run over a whole century of prayers and thanksgivings and this they very magisterially demonstrate and that with great subtilty and after the Cabalistical manner and first of all out of those words of Moses Now therefore O Israel hear what the Lord God requireth of thee Here the Rabbines read not the words according to the original Maâ— schoel which is what the Lord requires but Meah schoel that is to say The Lord requires an hundred so that Moses intent in this place was no other then if he had said God every day requires of thee an hundred Prayers But out of what puddle did these skilfull Fishers the Cabalists angle out this exposition the answer is First Moses insinuated so much unto us by putting an hundred letters in this very verse Secondly it is demonstrate by a secret of the Kabala by which is made a certain transposition of the Letters to wit when the first letter of the Alphabet is put in the place of the last and that which is immediatly before the last is put in the place of the second which kind of change the Cabalists cal Athbasch that is when Thau Aleph Beth and Schin are mutually changed one for another So by the benefit of this secret there comeâ— two letters in the place of Mem and He which make the word Mah above mentioned which are Tzadâ— and Jod which in computation make an hundred Thirdly it is read in the Talmud that David appointed these hundred prayers at that time when there dayly died in Israel an hundred men for which cause these hundred petitions are dayly to be repeated This is also evidently proved out of those words which we find thus written in the second Book of Samuel David the son of Ishai saith even the man who was sâ—t up on high the annointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet singer of Israel The man Hukam al der hocherhoben ist for so the Vulgar German â—enders it for Hukam properly signifies one that is exalted Al hight according then to the Cabalistical mysterious Art the letters of the word Al being Lamed and Ajin make in number an hundred and the meaning must be this the man saith by whom these hundred laudatory Petitions were erected and instituted This Interpretation was taken out of the artificial archives of the Jewish Theology into which no Christian may enter Many more such shal hereafter be produced which is the reason that I will trouble the Reader with no more in this place but proceed to declare the carriage of the Jews at home after their return from the Synagogue I will conclude all with the saying of the Prophet Esay When you shall stretch out your hands I will hide mine eyes from you and though you make many Prayers I will not hear for your hands are full of blood Again in another place Your iniquities havâ— seperated betwixt you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he wil not hear for your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity your liâ—â— have spoken lies and your tongue hath murmured iniquity CHAP. VI. How the Jewes after morning prayer behave themselves and prepare themselves to dinner BEfore the men returne home from the Synagogue their wives have swept and made the house very neat and cleanly lest their husbands eies should fasten upon any object which might molest and disturbe them in their pious meditations because these are as yet erected to God who keeps his residence in the highest Heavens Now if every man returning to his own house findes every thing in a decent order then his understanding remains pure and his mind untroubled but if he finde the contrary his understanding becomes muddy and perplext A wife that is honest indeed laies her husband a book upon the table which is either the Pentateâ—ch or some reprehensory
booke directing aright our life and conversation to the end that thence he may learn the feare of God and civility of behaviour and therefore he reads in the same an houre at least before he goes out of doors to performe any other businesse This the Cachamim and wise men among the Jewes conclude from the words of Solomon in his Proverbs saying The feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome Hence teaching us that in all our actions we undertake we ought to feare God and learn his word After the same manner might the Rabbines have expounded those words Vehaiah Gnekebh Tismegnun That the Jewes being interpreters they must be rendred thus There shall be a heale or foot you shall beare it and that which followes is this Before you set your heele or foot out of doors you shall learn the law by reading something therein and hearing what God wils and commands to be done It is a good work indeed to learn the law and on the contrary a great sinne for any to be negligent in the reading of the same In the time of the first Temple the peopl of Jerusalem committed many hainous offences as Incest and Idolatry yet the Lord did only in a manner know these and took notice of them untill they despised the law and would take no more paines to learn it Then the Lord banished them out of his sight destroied a great number of them and utterly laid waste their holy Temple Hereupon the Lord cried out by Jeremie the Prophet Who is wise to understand this and to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken he shall declare it Why doth the Land perish and is burnt up like a wildernesse and none passeth thorow And the Lord saith because they have for saken the law which I set before them and have not obeied my word neither walked there after Againe it is written in the first booke of Moses Then shall all nations say wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land how fierce is his great wrath And they shall answer because they have for saken the Covenant of the Lord God of their fathers which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt Wherefore a religious Jew must not presently after his comming from morning praier fall to his daily labour and servile emploiments but either retire himselfe to his owne house or in Beth Hammedrasch or the Schoole dedicated to study and there to read and learne somewhat out of the Law which may presse him forward to the feare of God and an honest life and godly conversation with men that by this meanes that may come to passe which the Prophet David makes mention of saying They will goe from strength to strength and unto the God of Gods appeareth every one of them in Sion Which is also very well expounded according to the sagacity of the Jewes in a little book written concerning the feare of God in these words They did goe from one study to another that they might by learning understand the Law When they are returned unto their owne house then laying aside their phylacteries and precatory fardles they put them into a chest First unloosing them of the head then those of the hand to the end they may at any time first take and bind on these of the hand Some also are accustomed to put off their garment of remembrance or their fringed Coat to which the Ribbands are annexed yet in my judgement it were more fitting they should weare it continually that they might not forget the commandements of the Lord but alwaies fulfill his Law They who are godly carry it all the day long under a corselet or cloake but so that the ribbonds may be seen of them that they may bee terrified from committing sin I once saw a crabbed Rabbine of a waiward holinesse who was Master of the Synagogue whose ribbands hanging at his fringes hung so low downe that they did even touch his feet For as some desiring not to be forgetfull of any thing committed to his memory knits a knot in his girdle to the end that he looking thereupon may call to his remembrance what he ought to put in execution So these five knotted fringes in use with the Jewes are as so many memorandums to warne them to avoid the by-paths of sin and iniquity And hence it comes to passe that all the Jewes are of such a sanctified conversation that they fulfill keep and observe every one of Gods commandements They also accounted it very good for the wholsome to eate something before a man in the morning undertake any businesse For there are sixty three diseases of the Gall which may all be cured by the eating of crust and a mornings draught of the blood of the grape Who wants wine he may drink Ale or a cup of cold water as Raschi is of an opinion and so shall he be fitted to undergo any labour They which are honest wives indeed will in the meane time make ready for dinner some boiled meate that their husbands bellies at their return home finding such cleanly provision may not by a long tarrying be occasioned to a thought that their throats are cut In that tract of the Talmud about the Sabbath it is ordained that the Jewes should goe to dinner some five houres after day-break which is about eleven a clock if any over-stay any longer hee may fall into some disease by the vehemence where of he may bee brought upon his knees for at that time the body expects and requires its naturall nourishment which if it have not then it seeds upon its owne members As a Bore in the time of winter is wont to doe for then if it be not possible for him to come by any sustenance hee by sucking his owne feete relieves himselfe The wives also must have an especiall care that they serve in the meate thus cleanly drest in a cleanly manner as it is written You shall not make your soules abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth neither shall you make your selves unclean with them that you should be defiled thereby for I am the Lord your God you shall therefore sanctifie your selves and you shall be holy for I am holy neither shall you defile your selves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth This place the profound Rabbines construe in this manner unto us That they being commanded by God ought to eate meates artificially cooked as men not beasts are accustomed to doe and that if any one do not eate such viandes he polluting himselfe without fall becomes unsanctified in the eies of the Lord. The table is to be spread with clean linnen bread in whole loaves pure well baked and not burn'd is to be set thereupon then Grate must be said and â—a blessing conserred upon the meat to be received If the good wives of the house have any pullen or other cattell which are to be fed
putting it into the salt or into some sort of sauce if there bee any upon the table presently eates it speaking not a word for if he doe he is bound to say grace the second time The piece which he breaks off is of a good quantity lest he should be accounted for a miserable niggard who desires to be sparing where spending is ranked in the place of a good worke and laudable It is also required that two or three should sit together at the same table for otherwise every one must say grace for himselfe This finished he takes the bread into his hands the second time and cuts every one there present a shive of the same laying it on their trencher that every one may feed thereupon In the same manner also he blesseth the wine especially in those regions where they commonly use to drinke it and were not only the whole number of ten` but three or foure are in company It is performed in this manner A cup brim full of wine being presented he takes it first into both his hands then holds it in the right hand alone yet if it bee big and weighty hee may also imploy his left so that hee place it below the right This done he lists it up above the table a hands breadth and fastning his eyes upon it raising himselfe a little in way of honour saith Blessed bee thou O Lordour God King of the world who hast created the fruit of the vine Here it is also provided that when many sit not at the same table every one in particular ought to blesse his owne cup where Ale or water and honey mixed together are wont to be drunk they use the same kind of grace The richest sort of the Jewes drinkes up the sanctifyed cup of wine though they carouse their cups of Ale after it They use not at any time to give ablessing being about to drinke water Grace being ended the Master of the family useth to repeat the twenty third Psalme after which they fall to lustily and feed deliciously if they have wherewithall He that gives not thankes himselfe must say Amen to him that supplies the place Hereupon it is read in the Talmud that whosoever saith Amen with an attentive and zealous minde he is farre more worthy and of greater esteem then hee that saith grace before or after meat The Rabbines illustrate this by a simile taken from one that writes a letter in another mans name For as the letter is then confirmed and ratified when it is sealed and signed by the hand of another so they make good and establish the blessing given upon the meate who say Amen at the ending thereof Salt is set upon the table in remembrance of their sacrifices which were wont to be offered in the daies of old for the table represents the Altar and the meat thereon is compared to the sacrifice yea it is also written And every oblation of thy meate-offering shalt thou season with salt neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the Covenant of thy GOD to be lacking from thy meate-offering with all thine offerings thoushalt offer salt and therefore it is lawfull to want salt at the table The reason why they doe not cut and divide their bread into parcels before they blesse it is because it is the position of their Doctors that hereby they should offend God seeing it is written Ubozeah berech nietz adonai which the Jews very handsomely translate whosoever cuts and gives a blessing offends the Lord. The Hebrew word Bozeah never signifying to cut neither admits it of any such signification in this place neither is it so translated in the Germane Psalter but only is so rendered at the pleasure of the Rabbines as wee may read in Orach chajim a little booke translated into the Germane tongue for the use of women and children in which is briefly set down the plat-forme after which their life ought to bee framed untill the end of their daies They lay both their hands upon the bread their fingers being stretched out in remembrance of the ten commandements which God gave concerning the graine whereof the bread is made These commandements cannot bee conveniently inserted into this place being set downe in a place a little before cited Secondly they do it moved thereunto by some sayings of holy writ one whereof is this He bringeth forth grasse for the cattell and green herbes for the service of men that he may bring bread out of the earth Another is this The eies of all wait upon the Lord and thou gavest them their meat in due season the third The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land a land of brookes and waters of fount aines and deeps that spring out of the vallies and hils A land of wheat and harly of vines aâ—d fig-trees and pomegranates a land of oile olive and honey And many other sayings of the same sort which in the originall consist onely of ten words and so the usuallgrace also consists of ten words onely In blessing the wine foure things are especially to be taken notice of and had respect unto all which are briefly comprehended in the word Chamischah which is as a note of remembrance for the more easie retaining of them The first of the word is Cheth which notes unto us Chai signifying new intimating that the wine ought both to be new and also to be poured out into the bowle from a full tankard The second letter Mem signifies Male which is as much as full for the cup ought to be full of wine as it is written O Naphtali satisfied with favour and full with the blessing of the Lord possesse thou the west and the south Hence concluding that their cup which they blesse in this manner ought to bee full of wine If any drinke out of the foresaid cup before grace be said it is to be filled againe out of a fresh and full tankard if there remaine no wine at all in the tankard then must that which is in the cup bee poured out into a cleane tankard and from thence into the cup againe and so it passeth for currant The third letter Schin notes the word Schetiphah which is ablution intimating that the out-side of the cup ought to bee washed with cold water The last letter He notes out the word Haddacha which signifies a washing intimating that the inside of the cup ought also to bee washed with cold water That they ought to lift up the cup with both hands from the table they prove from the words of David Lift up your hands unto the Sanctuary and bless the Lord a very doctor-like proofe indeed While they are at their repast every one using a modest carriage must think with himselfe that he is in the presence of the Lord. As it is said conâ—erning the tithes of the field that thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God Againe This is the table that is before the Lord.
sloth and idlenesse they use not to practise the foresaid things before they arise from the table When the Jewes have eaten their fils then the good man of the house some one of the Rabbines or some guest or stranger if any such bee present saies grace after meat Their thanksgiving is very prolixe and tedious in which praising God they thank him that he gives meate and drinke to them and all other his creatures that hee sustaines them through his goodnesse that he brought their fathers out of the land of of Egypt and gave them the land of Canaan for and inheritanâ—e made a covenant with them and in giving them the law made a promise unto them that he would for ever keep and defend them They pray and beseech him that he would have mercy upon Sion build againe their holy Temple and restore the Kingdome of David in these their daies send them the Messias and Eliah the Prophet to deliver them out of the house of bondage to preserve them against poverty that they may not bee forced to beg or borrow of the Christians who in their repute are men meerely flesh and blood poore miserable mortals and cast-awaies who entertaine no commerce with their Maker who are subject to the curse and utterly rejected who shall dye and perish like unto beasts when on the contrary they are a holy nation the â—lock and inheritance of God himselfe They further pray that God would vouchsafe to fill their hands with all good things and noâ— suffer them to bee ashamed but to breake the yoake of the Christians from off their necks and to bring them backe into their own land to bestow a blessing upon the house where in they have feasted and to enrich the master and mistrisse thereof with their children and all their posterity c. To which things every one saying Amen with attentive mindes repeating the words of David O feare the Lord all yee his saints for they that feare him lacke nothing The lyons do lack and suffer hunger but they that secke the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good This they say with their mouthes so empty of meate that not one crum of bread or piece of flesh stickes between their teeth and those words bind them thereunto Let my mouth bee filled with thy praise and glory all the day long Prayers are alwaies to bee said in that place where dinner or supper is eaten Hence the Cabbalists write that whosoever praies not in that place where any banquet is celebrated shall never come unto the grave because they shall dye such a death which is never accompanied with any buriall as hanging drowning or such like There was once a time when a certaine godly and religious Jew being in the field refreshed and filled with wholsome meates forgot to give thankes When hee had been long absent from the foresaid place and at length remembring he had offended in not saying grace having another in his company he said unto him that hee must of necessity returne to that place where hee had formerly taken meate because hee had left a precious toole there Which when he had done and praied and given thanks God shewed this miracle He created a golden dove which the Jew had bestowed on him as a reward of his honesty and piety in observing the precepts of the Talmud with so great diligence This was a miracle indeed in that place but it had been none at all in Paphlagonia although the dove being throughly rosted had sâ—own into his mouth Without all doubt this miracle was done neare unto the Indian mines For who will be so stupid as not to believe that this dove flying from thence and being wearied in slight alighted here to rest her selfe The Chachamim and Doctors command that a man should not make many banquets in one week lest he should so carry himselfe that every day thereof might bee accounted for an holy day as some doe who mutually inviting one another say to day you shall feast with me so will I to morrow with you c. for the whole weeke Of such men the Cabbalists writing say that at such banquets an evill spirit called Samaâ—l feasts himselfe together with others of his society inciting the guests to many grand offences Rabbi Levi in the behalfe of Rabbi Abhen in the name of Rabbi Joshua saith that the bellies of all those that keep such revellings eating and drinking sporting and feasting every week do burst asunder the third after they are dead and laid in their graves and the dung of their intrals is poured upon their faces as it is written I will sprinkle the dung of your feasts upon your faces Which once come to passe the Devils come and jeare them saying now devour that which even now thou gormandisedst And here I will leave them and proceed to a further declaration of their carriage after they rise from the table CHAP. VIII Of their evening prayer and their manner of going to bed IN great Cities where the Jewes have Schools or Synagogues the beater of the Schoole who is the same with a Sexton in other places going about unto their houses about five a clock in the afternoon knocks at their doores with an hammer thereby giving them notice that they ought to make hast to evening prayer So soon as they come into the Synagogue they set them down and huddle up a certaine praier by reason of the first word therein called Aschre which in English signifies Blessednesse which is taken out of the eighty fourth Psalme and the first verse which begins with this fore-mentioned word The prayer runs thus Blessed are they that dwell in thine house for they will alwaies be praising thee Selah In these words boasting of their diligence in frequenting the house of the Lord Happy are the people that be in such a case yea blessed are the people that have the Lord for their God I will magnifie thee O Lord my King I wil praise thy name for ever and ever c. unto the end of the Psalme This prayer is in so great esteem among them that they write that whosoever saith it three times a day shall have his portion in eternall life Then the Chanter rising up sings halfe of that holy prayer which they call Kaddisch after that the whole Synagogue joines in the repetition of the eighteen laudatory petitions of which we made mention in their morning prayer Which done and finished the Chanter comming for his chaire or pulpit so called by the Christians fals downe upon his knees before the Arke and leanes his head upon his left hand which all the people doe likewise and bowing their head towards the left side and covering theirface with their whole heart for the heart lies upon the left side and so the head and heart are joined in such a position they in a most devout manner pronounce the words following O mercifull and
gracious GOD I have sinned in thy sight but thou art full of mercy Have mercy therefore upon mee and receive my prayer which proceedeth out of unfained lips Rebuke mee not O Lord in thy fury neither chasten mee in thy heavy displeasure They moreover repeate the sixt Psalme from the beginning to the end with their heads covered and bended towards the earth The Chanter fals downe upon his knees before the Arke in imitation of Joshua of whom it is written That hee rent his clothes and fell to the earth upon his face before the Arke of the Lord untill the eventide he and the elders of Israel and put dust upon their heads The reason why they cover their faces is this In ancient times when they had a large and spacious Temple they came thither to confesse their sins every one stood from another by the space of four els lest his neighbour should heare his confession In these daies therefore they cover their faces for the same end and purpose They leane their head upon their left hand moved hereunto by that which is written His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me And moreover because Isaac being about to bee sacrificed lay upon his left side But to returne to the point in hand They suddenly rise up againe and their Chanter saies Wee are ignorant O Lord what other thing to put in practise but only to lift up our eyes unto thee as though they would say Wee have worshipped thee O God sitting and standing being humble and lifted up kneeling and with anerected posture not knowing what more is reâ—â—iâ—ed of us yet wee will once againe lift up our eies unto thee Hitherto they only have sung their prayer called Kaddisch which finished their evening prayer is ended Now indeed it were very laudable if after this evening sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving returning to their owne houses they did immediately fall to supper and that ended againe to assemble themselves into the Synagogue for the performance of their nocturnall devotions But this practise is disapproved by the Rabbines as a thing very inconvenient seeing many may be drunke and so forget their duty of prayer therefore they have decreed that presently after the evening prayer be ended that accustomed to be said in the beginning of the night should also be finished Yet not withstanding they make some small stay between Minhah and Maâ—rib that is to say between their evening and nightly prayers to the end the one may be differenced from the other They have one quaint custome concerning the reconcilement of them that are at strife one with another and that in time of prayers For if two be at ods and the one cannot bring the other with him into the Synagogue That a reconcilemet may be made he steps unto the book out of which the Chanter sings or saies their common prayers shuts it and giving it a clap with his hand saith I conclude and put a period to this exercise which is all one as if he should say I locke and seale up this order of praying interdicting the same untill an agreement be made between me and mine adversary And from that time forward untill his desire bee accomplished it is not lawfull for them to say any more prayers in the Synagogue Thence it often fals out that they retune home without any praying yet if the one party bee wayward and refractory there happens many times a surcease and intermission of this duty of prayer for some whole dayes together Among many others they have a prayer that God would vouchsafe to deliver them from the Christians and bring them back againe to their owne land This prayer begins Baruch Jehovah O blessed God our Lord help us gather together and deliver us from the Gentiles that we professing thy holy Name may make our boast of thy praise All the people which thou hast created shall come and worship thee fall down before thee and sing praises unto thy name Our eyes shall see it our heart shall rejoice our soul shall be joyfull in thy strength when it shall be said in Sion The Lord doth reign God is King he doth rule and shall beare rule for evermore for thine is thy Kingdome c. But alas poore silly Jew in vaine thou gapest after with a greedy expectation this thy rejoicing seeing he is come some sixteen hundred years agoe whom thou as yet waites for and expects to bring thee joy and consolation Furthermore they say one petition more formerly mentioned in their morning prayer in which they entreat God to revenge their cause against all the Christians in generall but in a more especiall manner against their Magistrates If any lost a father in that yeare he is tied all the yeare long to say that praier called Kaddisch the lesse by the mediation of which his father shall be delivered out of purgatory of which God willing more hereafter When they go out of the Synagogue then must they repeat those sentences formerly mentioned in the fifth Chapter And in this place againe they exercise many prolix disputes about that prayer beginning Schema Israel Heare O Israel the Lord thy God is one God questioning the manner how the time when the place where this prayer should bee said and repeated All which to avoid prolixity I willingly omit At dinner and supper their carriage is the same When they goe to bed they must first draw off the left foot shooe then the right They put off their shirts lying in bed and covered with clothes lest the beams and wals of the house should behold their unseemly nakednesse And this is the cause that they never use to empty their bladder in their bed-chamber their clothes being off the very act becomming a shamefull disgrace unto them and the consequent of such impudence being a fearfullapse into an extream poverty a consideration also had that it is one of those things God hateth Whosoever saies that prayer Schema Israel Heare O Israel c. must endeavour instantly upon the finishing of the same to fal asleep and take an especiall care that he speake nothing after it as it is written Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still Selah If sleepe will not presently attempt to close up his eyes he must not cease to repeate the said prayer untill the approach thereof tongue-tye his devotions for inâ—o doing his rest shall bee sweet and delightfull unto his wearied body his sleep comfortable and restorative The bed wherein the man and wife are to make their repose is to bee furnished with cleane sheets without spot or blemish for it may come to passe that the man may meditate upon some thing which he hath learned and also committed to memory by reading the Scriptures whilst it was yet day yea both man and woman may joyne in prayer to the Almighty that they may beget children which will bee obedient to
holinesse to the Lord. Then the sexton goes about and cries who will buy Gelilah etz chajim which is a certaine kinde of office which any supplying is licenced to tosse over the booke of the Law by a serious revisall Which office is granted unto him who will give the most money for it which is put into the poore mans box and chested up for their reliefe Those pieces of wood by the helpe whereof the booke of the Law is carryed up and downe are called by them etz chaijm the wood of life to which that sentence of Solomon was Godfather Wisdome is the tree of life to them thâ—t lay hold on it Gelilah signifies a folding intimating what things may be observed in the folding and unfolding of the book When the Chanter takes this holy booke out of the Arke then he goes into the pulpit where he reads out of the same these words following It came to passe when the Aâ—ke was set forth that Moses said Rise up O Lord and let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee Againe Many people shall goe and say come yee and let us goe up to the mountaine of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his waies and we will walke in his pathes for out of Sion shall goe forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem The Chanter when he begins to sing laying the book upon his arme saith O praise the Lord with me and let us magnifie his name together To which the whole congregation makes this answer O magnifie the Lord our God and fall down before his foot stool for he is holy O magnifie the Lord our God and worship him upon his holy hil for the Lord our God is holy Directly above that four square structure is placed a certain table covered with a silken Carpet upon which the Chasan or Chanter laies down the book of the Law Then comes he who is to purchase the Office of Gelilah with his money taking away and devesting the booke of its formerly in wrapping garments which finished the Chasan and the other who was to buy his place calling one out of the whole congregation and commanding his personall appearance in his fathers name and his own he approaching the presence seats himselfe in the middle kisses the book not upon the bare leaves of the same for this were an hainous offence but through the swadling cloutes thereof and grasping the cover thereof saies with a loud voice praise the Lord c. Blessed be thou O God who hast chosen us unto thy selfe before all other nations of the earth and hast given us thy Law Blessed be thou O God the Law giver Now the Jew perswades himselfe that his lot is fallen unto him in a fair ground seeing he hath seen and handled the tree of life and therefore becomes blessed above all other people In the next place the minister reades a chapter or section out of the Bible which ended he who was formerly summoned to appeare takes the book the second time and kisseth it saying Blessed be thou O God who hast given us the very law and implanted unto us eternall life Blessed be thou the Law-giver After this two more are successively called whose behaviour is squared according to the platforme of the formers carriage He that came first in goes out by another doore then that which afforded him entrance After these another is cited who ought to have a well brawned arme for hee must lift up the book at armes end and turning round must expose it to the view of every spectator the whole congregation in the mean season bellowing ouâ— This is the law which Moses gave to the Israelites This Office is named Hagbahah and is sold to him for money who bids most While the match is in making those brawling scolds the women presse into the Synagogue with a great deale of quarrelling and much opposition every one striving to gain a place in some window or other where they may be blessed with the sight of such an holy booke thinking to reape some pleasure by the sole beholding of it seeing their lips cannot bee allowed to second their husbands in billing of it The women have a peculiar Synagogue of their owne differenced from that of their husbands with latticed and cross-barred windowes Concerning which much is spoken in the Talmud and an evident demonstration there of is given by the Prophet Zachary in these words The land shall mourne every family apart the family of the house of David apart and their wives apart the family of the house of Nathan apart and their wives apart The family of the house of Levi apart and their wives apart The family of Shimei apart and their wives apart All the families that remaine every family apart and their wives apart Whence they conclude that the men and women are not to come into the same Sinagogue in the time of divine service and that for modesty and honesties sake seeing not only women but men likewise are apt and inclineable to fall into divers lustfull cogitations when they are in the same place together If the Jew who reades the Law chance to stumble and let the booke fall out of his hand he is bound to fast and all the rest also for a long time together seeing this accident presageth some great calamity to come upon them At length come they who have purchased the Gelilah and etz chajim the one of them touching the wooden cover of the booke folding it up great experience is required in this case the other administers the linnen clothes in which it ought to be inwrapped and its silver-twisted coat involving all the rest Then comes every one in the Synagogue both young and old and kisses the booke touching it only with two fingers with which they afterwards handle their face which action relishing of a supreme sanctity is held for a soveraigne medicine against blindnesse and all diseases incident to the eie While the booke is carryed to the Arke the Chanter sings praise the name of the Lord for the name of this our God is of great power and strength The congregation answereth and saith His praise is above heaven and earth he hath exalted the horne of his peculiar people to the praise of all his saints Yea the Israelites being a folke most neare unto him praise yee the Lord. When the book is laid in the Arke the people say or sing those words of Moses used by him when the Arke rested Returne O Lord unto the many thousands of Israel Then they conclude all saying as was formerly noted at their going out of the Synagogue O Lord lead me in thy justice because of mine enemies make my way plaine before thy face The Lord shall keep my going out and comming in from this time forth for evermore These words they repeate also when they goe out
of doores either to take a journey or to doe any other businesse CHAP. X. The preparation of the Jewes to the Sabbath and how they begin the same IT is written in the second booke of Moses That upon the sixt day they gathered twice as much bread and a little after this is that which the Lord hath said To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord bake that which you will bake to day and seeth that yee will seeth and that which remaineth over lay up for you to bee kept untill the morning These words force the Jewes to this conclusion that it is their duty and Gods command too that they should provide all things necessary pertaining to the honourable celebration of the Sabbath especially dainty and delicate meates which they ought to boile or bake betimes upon the Friday morning whereon they may feed upon the Sabbath and with more facility rest from their labours The women are in a more particular manner enjoined to prepare great store of palate pleasing wafers who while they are kneading and making ready the dough they are very ceremoniall therein leaving the lump whole If the bignesel cause a necessity of division which is often seen in great families then the one part thereof is covered with a cloth that it may not be ashamed and put an open scandall by the other part in that it is provided in the last place for the Sabbaths repast They honour the Sabbath with three banquets all served in much pompe The first whereof they celebrate upon Friday at night when the Sabbath begins The second upon the day it selse about twelve of the clock The third and last upon the evening of the same These to be the due times they prove out of those words of Moses Eat that to day for to day it is a Sabbath unto the Lord to day yee shall not find it in the field From the word to day thrice repeated the Rabbines conclude that Moses in this place doth signifâ—e that manna ought to be eaten at three severall times upon the Sabbath orderly succeeding one another This institution according to the same Doctors in their Dutch Minhagin is profitable in another respect That is if only one banquet should be provided every one would with such gredinesse feed thereupon that his guts should be sufficiently stuft for the rest of the ensuing time even untill the end of the Sabbath But now seeing that every man knowes that one banquet being ended two more are to succeed his stomack hath no such edge to the first as otherwise it had but living in a very temperate manner he eats his meat with pleasure conscious of a second and third returne to the table What other Rites they practise shall hereafter be manifested In the time of preparation no man must thinke it a thing unseemly or derogating from his birth or riches to worke with his owne hands that the preparation to the Sabbath may be compleat And although some one man there were who had an hundred thousand men and maides yet ought not to be a meere overseer of their labours but a partaker and that in honour of the Sabbath According to that which is recorded in the Talmud that the good and honest man Rabbe Chasda would fall a chopping pot-herbes Those learned men Rabba and Rabbi Joseph would cleave wood Rabbi Ezra would make the fire Rabbi Nachman would sweep the house and would moreover provide all manner of instruments necessary for the table Meates either boiled or roasted are kept hot in an oven because they are better hot then cold The tablestands covered all the day and night long which hath a mysticall signification as hereafter shall bee declared Furthermore they wash their heads and use the help of a barber if need require The women ought to attire their heads and plate their haire to goe into some hot bath or else to wash their hands in hot water Upon every Friday they pare their nailes and in a very superstitious fashion beginning at the fourth finger of the left hand and so holding on to the second then to the fift then to the third and last of all to the thumbe whence it comes to passe that they cut not their nailes in order but still over-skip some finger or other In cutting those of the right hand they begin with the second finger and so hold on to the fourth He that throwes his nailes being cut off upon the ground that they may bee trodden under foot of men is a wicked man and a great sinner For Satan hath power over the nailes and wizards by the help of them exercise their inchantments and if any chance to tread upon them some great danger or other hangs over his head On the contrary whosoever digs and buries them in the earth he is accounted for an honest righteous man If he cast them into the fire then is hee a holy and honourable man in esteeme And the truth of every particular they evidently demonstrate in their owne opinion out of the words formerly alledged the summe of which were that upon the sixt day they should prepare themselves Moreover it is necessarily required that every one should sharp his knife use the whetstone and edge him acutely which they prove by those words Thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace thou shalt visit thy habitation and shalt not sinne Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great and thy off-spring as the grasse of the earth Out of which saying the Jewish Doctors have drawne this conclusion that wheresoever is a blunt knife and nothing cunning in cutting there is no peace at the table and the whole house is out of square In the next place they put on their holiday clothes every one dressing himselfe in the most minicall fashion his plodding curiosity can invent They of the richer sort have garments onely appropriated to the day not kissing their corpes upon any other and their reason for the same is very plausible for the Rabbines call the Sabbath a Queen Now if any being to make his appearance before this Queene should not put on some princely garments such as in other place they use to weare in the presence of a King then this Queen should bee much scandalized thereby They cover the table with fine and cleane linnen not neglecting the provision of napkins trenchers cups cushions stooles and other appurtenances that all things may bee in a readinesse to entertaine this renowned Queen the Sabbath in a fit and decent manner In the daies of old warning to a due preparation was wont to be given by the sound of an horne or trumpet But at this day the Sexton or keeper of the Synagogue goes about to every house making proclamation that every man should cease from labour and prepare himselfe to a comely and honourable welcomming of the holy Sabbath which comes to his house much like to
the Sabbath From thence came this my Mammon and great riches which God vouchsafed unto me as a reward for my diligent observance of Sabbaths Then said I Blessed be God who hath given thee this abundance and hath made thee worthy to bea possessour of so great wealth This befell the Butcher In the same page it is registred that there was sometimes one Joseph surnamed Mokir Schabbas that is to say an honourer of the Sabbath This man of all those victuals that the Shambles could afford thought nothing too deare for the celebration of the Sabbath yea he would spare neither cost nor charges in the procurement of the most rare fishes the waters could furnish him withall This Joseph had a certaine neighbour who was very rich By him he was continually flouted with a goe to what doth it profit thee that thou celebratest the Sabbath in such a religious manner Certainly thou art never the richer then if thou studied the contrary I do not reverence the Sabbath in that degree that thou doest and yet I am richer then thou art Good Joseph little regarding his mocks put his trust in God hoping that hee would give him a large harvest of rewards for these his weekly expences At that time there were certaine Astrologers in that City who said unto the rich man Friend what availeth it thee to bee so rich when thy heart will not suffer thee to buy one good fish with all thy bags We by the observation of the stars have gathered thus much that thy goods and riches which are so infinite shall all come iuto the hands of Joseph Mokir Scabbas that reverent observer of the Sabbath who upon the Sabbath day is wont to have some morsell for his money The rich man hearing the words of these star-gazers and meditating upon them went and sold all that he had and with the money purchased many Margarites and other precious stones all which he pursed up in a girdle of haire and presently takes shipping for another country that the good man Joseph might not inherit his goods When he was about the middle of the Sea behold a great tempest arose and did â—o split the ship that it was beyond expectation if he did not take up his lodging in the chambers of the deep The wind blowing most vehemently snatcht his hat from off his head tossing it into a remote place of this vast Ocean where a fish at that time there swimming swallowed up the hat together with the girdle wherein were the Margarites and other precious stones A little after this this huge fish was taken and carried to the City upon Friday to be sold in the Market Every Caterer prized the fish but for a great price set upon it none could buy it at last comes Joseph Mokir Schabbas who was alwaies accustomed to buy great fishes of what price soever who never sâ—uck to buy this also for the celebration of the Sabbath which he did with a great alacrity of mind and joy of heart of no vulgar extent Which when he had carried home and cut up he found in the leaunch thereof the aforesaid girdle stuft with precious stones which the rich Euclio had lost And so the prediction of the Astrologers came to passe Then became Josâ—ph a man of exceeding great wealth greatly rejoicing because these jewels were valued to be worth a whole Kingdome Then came a certaine old man unto Joseph and said unto him Whosoever borroweth much for the Sabbath day the Sabbath wiâ—l likewise repay him much againe and who honours it but in part the Lord will restore it unto him foure-fold It is also recorded in the Talmud in the Tract concerning the fasting of one Rabbi Chonech He was wont every Fryday to send his servants into the Market and cause them to buy up all the pot-herbes which the Gardiners could not put off their hands and then commanded them to throw them into the rivers The Rabbines in Gemarah which is an appendix to the Talmud aske the question why he did not rather give their herbes unto the poor The answer is that if he had given them to the poor then they would have bought none for the celebration of the Sabbath and if it should have come so to passe that the Gardiners should have withdrawne all their pot-herbs so that the poor people could not have had them then should not the Sabbath have been celebrated by them Againe the Rabbines ask why he did not give them unto the beasts to eat which had been far better then thus to throw them into the water where they are utterly void of profit The answer is that hee would not have that to bee devoured by the irreasonable creature which may serve for the proper food of man And that although he cast them into the waters yet men might take them from thence and transfer them to their own use But why did he buy up all the pot-herbes This he did for the encouragement of the Gardiners that they might the more willingly and with a better accord bring them into the Market every Friday For if they could not have sold this their garbish for one day or two together then had they staied at home ever after and so the poor people should have wanted food upon the Sabbath day and by this means the Sabbath it selfe should have been dishonoured And therefore Rabbi Chonech tooke this course that the Sabbath might bee honoured by voluptous living and that by the poor man too though a green sallet were his chiefe delicate It is written in the tract concerning the Sabbath that whosoever upon the Sabbath lifts us his head that is to say who celebrates the Sabbath with joy and rejoicing God shall give him a large inheritance subdue unto him many nations people infinite and innumerable as it is written Then that is when thou shalt keep the Sabbath with joy and rejoycing and call it thy delight thou shalt delight thy self in the Lord and I will set thee upon the high places of the earth and feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father of whom it is written Thou shalt spreadforth east and west north and south even into the foure corners of the earth Rabbi Nachman averres that whosoever exhibites himselfe as a pattern of merriment upon the Sabbath day shall be free from the bondage of the nations as it is written I will set thee upon the high places of the earth and thou shalt tread upon the necks of thine enemies Rabbi Juda saith that whosoever keepes the Sabbath with a joifull heart God shall give him whatsoever his heart can wish as it is written Delight in the Lord and he shall give thee thy hearts desire And now seeing the Jewes doe not as yet tread upon the necks of their enemies nor are really possest of the highest places of the earth neither have gained their hearts desire to wit that they may bee Lords and Masters over the Christians that
a certaine shadow upon the palme after this he stretcheth forth his hand the second time so that he may know by the candle light that his nailes are whiter then his fingers which he perceiving saith Blessed be thou O God our God King of the world who hast created such a resplendent candle Then he takes the cup againe into his left hand looking in the like manner upon the nailes thereof Then by and by he transfers the cup into the right hand and saith Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world who hast put a difference between the holy and unholy between light and darknesse between Israel and the Gentiles between the seventh day and the other six dayes of the weeke destinated for labour While hee is a repeating this prayer he poures a little of the wine out of the cup upon the earth Then he drinks a little of it himselfe reaching it unto others that they may sup of the same Amongst these nocturnall petitions there is one which begins Vaiehi Noam in which the letter zaijn is not found which signifies weapons whosoever therefore shall say this prayer with a devoâ—t minde hee shall bee safe and secure that whole night following from any kinde of weapon so that he shall neither be killed nor have the least scratch given him In the the like manner he shall besafe from the devill when he devoutly faith that prayer beginning Schema Israel Heare O Israel c. For the first verse begins with the letter Schin and ends with the letter Daleth which two joined together make Scheds which word signifies a Devill This distinction of the Sabbath they prove from those words that you may discern between the holy and profane and those Godseparated the light from the darknesse Some take of the consecrated wine and anoint their eies therewithall others wash their face in it thinking it a wholsome medicine against the fluxes of the eye others bath their arteries therewith because it is a meanes to length 〈◊〉 their dayes others sprinkle it in every corner of the hoâ—â—ri about the beds and cradles of infants dreaming that it is soveraign against enchantments and witchcraft The truth is this wine is of so high esteeme amongst them as that other also wherewith they initiate the Sabbath They smell the perfumes lest they should fall into a swoon while one of their soules departs out of the body For upon the Sabbathday they have another soule besides that which they live by at other times Concerning this matter Antonius Margarita in his booke of the faith of the Jewes writes in this manner It is written in the Jewish Talmud saith he that every man hath three soules and it is proved out of these following words of the Prophet Isaiah Thus saith the Lord who created the heaven and stretched it out who made the earth and whatsoever groweth thereon who giveth life and breath unto the inhabitants of it According to the letter of this text they find two soules in man to which if we add the naturall soule there ariseth three Whereupon they also write that two soules depart out of a man sleeping the one of which goes upward unto God to learne things to come the other goes downward into the earth and running to and fro contemplates nothing else but injustice sinne foolishnesse or vanity The third they call Ruach Behemoth the irreasonable soule which being the first of all received by man is seated neare unto his heart and sees all things whatsoever the other two soules in their absence from the body have heard seen or done and hence proceed and issue all our dreames which therefore are not alwaies to be contemned They say moreover that upon the Sabbath a man hath another soule besides these which enlarges his heart that he may keep the Sabbath more honourably and exhilarate himselfe in a higher straine of mirth then it were possible for him to doe if hee were destitute of the same But the Sabbath once being ended this soule departs and the man becomes weake thereupon against which his faintnesse hee may prosperously use these sweet smelling odours that the body may have wherewith to recover its former strength Hitherto Margarita but whence he had these words I cannot as yet finde Concerning this superfluous soule 〈◊〉 remember I have read this in the Talmud Rabbi Jose said 〈◊〉 the name of Rabbi Simeon who was the sonne of Jochai that all the commandements that God gave unto the Israelites he gave them in publike except the Sabbath which he gave in private as it is recorded The Sabbath shall be an everlasting signe between me and the children of Israel Where the Jewes by an everlasting signe would understand a secret token willing that the Sabbath should be hid from all other nations and onely manifested to the Jewes Therefore marke diligently Christian Reader how the Hebrew word leolam signifying everlasting any reasonable soule being judge must according to the Jewish interpretation signifie hidden and concealed Hence the Rabbines in their Gemarah ask the question that if the Christians and other people do not know that we have a Sabbath how comes it to passe that they in time to come shall be punished for the contempt of the Sabbath and for the not keeping thereof They make answer to themselves saying they know well enough that wee keep the Sabbath this is not hidden from their eyes and therefore they are to be punished because they will not keepe it But the reward due unto the observance thereof is hidden from them and this they know not yet if they would rightlly celebrate the Sabbath they should also know thereward But this is a thing impossible for them to put in execution seeing they are destitute of the superfluous soule because it being given to men rather upon that day then others and that more abundantly doth enlarge their hearts that in the time of the Sabbath they may take their rest with ease eat and drinke well and merrily and set all care and sorrow a packing from their breasts Hereupon Rabbi Simeon the sonne of Lakis affirmed that God gave this soule to man upon the Sabbath about eventide and tooke it from him again at the end of the Sabbath as it is written When he had taken rest evâ—n to satiety the Sabâ—ath remaining then was he deprived of his soule to wit the superfluous one Where againe note how neatly the Jewes interpret the holy Scriptures for the verbe jinnâ—phsch in that place is rendred by the Rabbines to want or bee deprived of a soule whereas it hath a clean contrary signification to cherish recollect recreate stirre up the spirits and most properly to breath which after the manner of men we ascribe unto God concerning whom it cannot be said nor understood that he hath lost a soule In this their blindnesse the Jewes blush not to place their chiefe wisdome and knowledge Concerning this superfluous soule Rabbi Abraham also
some resemblance and analogy with their head though oftentimes they lose their naturall taste and qualities by reason of the places and channels in which they keep their course Even so out of those chiefe Articles concerning the labours of the Jewes many moe labours arise and issue as the River from the fountaine which labours seem to differ much from the other yet they alwaies doe correspond in some similitude for example The first and chiefe Article is to till plow or sowe the ground to this Article these are reducible To dig fill up dâ—tches dresse the garden with shovels transplant herbes plant vines inoculate loppe to water herbes and young plants or cyens and if there bee any other kind of worke to be done by which any thing may be furthered in his growth Hereupon the Rabbines for feâ—re of filling up of ditches have permitted it is lawfull to spriâ—kie a chamber with water upon the Sabbath day to avoid the rising of the dust but by no meanes to sweep it with a besome lest some chinke or other should be filled thereby And for the same reason they have interdicted the casting of nuts little stones oâ— such like into a ditch as at a certaine marke It is also prohibited that any one should walke upon new plowed â—land lest by hard treading hee might either make a ditch or fill one The second Article is concerning the cutting down and reaping of corn To which are reâ—erred the plucking of dates grapes olives olive berries the gathering of figs and apples the taking of honey out of the Bee hive and many moe of the same nature Hence it is permitted to taste or eate an apple hanging upon the bough or branch upon the Sabbath day but by no meanes to pluck it off It is unlawfull to goe through a field of corne especially if the weather be rainy for the seed may be rooted up by the heele which is all one as if it were cut with the sickle Hence it was that the Jewes reprehended the Disciples of our Saviour for pulling the eares of corne upon the Sabbath To the Article of threshing are referred the peeling renting shaking of hempe or flax the spinning of wooll the straining of any fruits which are full of moisture as olives orenges apples grapes the wringing of any wet cloth and such like The giving of sucke is also to be referred to this Article yet the Rabbines do not agree in opinion concerning this matter Hereupon it is much questioned whether a Nurse being bewraied by a child upon the Sabbath day may lawfully make her selfe cleane Many hold that shee ought to wash her hands by the meanes whereof the filth may by little and little bee done away But Rabbi Jose dislikes the opinion and prohibits the doing of it seeing such a washing cannot goe in the number of ordinary ones Thus I have showne you three of their Articles which in the Talmud are called the fathers of labour by which you may easily know how to judge of the rest only I will add that the offences committed against both kinds are accounted equall The Articles which arise from the first are called by the Jewes Tole doth Generations or off-springs in the relation to the former appellation of fathers He that offends against either is esteemed to deserâ—e stoning but who out of deliberate malice transgresseth the least of them God will blot his name out of the booke of life These things are more at large commented upon in the Talmud the full description whereof as it is there set downe many volumes are not large enough to comprehend Now although the Jewes in their owne foolish conâ—eits perswade themselves that they rightly observe and keepe the Sabbath omitting nothing which appertaâ—â—es to the honouring and sanctifying thereof yet experience it selfe to which both their consciences and doctrine give witnesse cries out that they not at any time kept and sanctified it as they ought Rabbi Jochanan in that treatise of the Talmud about the Sabbath in the sixteenth Chapter and the hundred and eighteenth page affirms That whosoever keeps the Sabbath as he ought and as the strict rule there of requires and abstaines from Idolatry shall have remission of all his sâ—ns which he proves out of the fifty sixt Chapter of Isaiah and the second verse where it is thus written Blessed is the man who doth this and the sonne of man who laies hold upon it and who keeps the Sabbath and pollutes it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mechallelo and profanes it not for so the word in the originall most properly signifies Yet the skilfull rabbines will not have written Mechallelo but Machollo which signifies he hath obtained remission Rabbi Jehuda saith that if the people of Israel had sanctified the first Sabbath after the giving of the Law in that manner which they ought there had never any strange nation borne rule over them For as it is recorded upon the seventh day after the giving of the Law some of the people went out to gather manna and found it not for which sinne of theirs Amalâ—k came and fought against Israel as it is written in the next Chapter Rabbi Jochanan in the name of Rabbi Simeon who was the sonne of Jochai saith that if Israel at this day could but rightly keep two Sabbaths one immediately following the other they should be presently delivered out of their bondage as it is written Thus saith the Lord they that keep my Sabbaths c. Even unto them will I give within my house and within my wals a place and a name better then of sonnes and daughters I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off Even them will I bring to my holy mountaine and make them joyfull in my house of prayer Because therefore the Jewes are not delivered unto this day yea are almost past hopes of a future deliverance it must necessarily follow that as yet they have not sanctifyed the Sabbath as they ought Yea they themselves confess so much saying that they were deficient herein in the times foregoing the destruction of the second Temple and that this was the reason why Jerusalem was laid waste for thus they hold on in the Talmud Abhai saith that Jerusalem was destroied by reason her inhabitants profaned the Sabbath as it is written Her Priests have violated my Law and have profaned my holy things They have put no difference between the holy and the profane neither have they shewed difference between the clean and the unclean they have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths and I am profaned among them Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them And even so do the Jewes at this day for they observe and keep the Sabbath onely with a good cup of wine some dainty dishes of flesh and fish and al kind of pleasures to the utmost reach of their abilitie They abstaine from all outward workes yea they will not have
observe your ownae traditions And againe Woe be unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you make cleane the out-side of the cup and of the platter but within they are full of bribery and excesse Woe be unto you Scribes Pharisees and hypocrites for yee are like unto whited tombes which appeare beautifull outwards but are within fâ—ll of dead mens bones and all filthinesse doe yee also for outward ye appeare righteous unto men but within you are full of hypocrisie and iniquity So much concerning their cleansing of vessels In the next place wee must enquire into the manner how they purge and cleanse the old leavened bread which they formerly sought for with so much diligence Upon the night before the passeover every one who is Master of a family takes a platter and a wing and lighting a wax candle before he begins his search saith Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the whole world who hast sanctified us by thy commandements and hast commanded us to purge out the old leaven Then if his house be large and spacious containing many rooms and stories he cals unto him some boies or others of riper yeares to help him for to search but no women because they are idle and talkative and unfit for such emploiments these serve as Clerks to say Amen to the former prayer and then become fellow-seekers to finde out the leavened bread every one of these carrying a wax light in his hand holding the same to every â—hinke and mouse-hole that hee may see whether any rat or mouse have left any crumbs of bread uneaten He is to lift the light no higher then his arms will stretch especially in that place where his owne wall joines to the wall of the house of some Christian for in such a place he is not permitted to seek at all for if the light should chance to shine through the crevises into the Christians house hee might thinke the Jew were about to set the same on fire Wheresoever the house of one Jew adheres unto another there the scrutator for rats and mice must search in every place as much as he can possible They must use no tallow candles in this their scrutinie for these will suddenly melt and it is to be feared that the chamber should not become cleane but rather defiled by the leaven hereof Sometimes they willingly and of set purpose cast osme crusts of bread upon the pavement especially upon that which they conceive to bee purified to the end that their laborious search and prayer may not be in vaine These crusts must be of great antiquity and of an hoary hardnesse otherwise all the fat is in the fire The bread which is appointed for them to eat at supper they hide before they begin to search lest they should find this also and so be forced to burn it and by this meanes it should come to passe that they might go supperlesse to bed It is not lawfull for any man to speak a word between the ending of prayer and the finishing of the foresaid inquisition unlesse it be necessarily required for the execution of the same as open that chà mber doore bring hither that candle that I may see So much leaven as they finde they gather together and lay it aside untill the next day in some safe place lest a mouse should carry some parcell there of into her hole and they caused to renew their search and this is the reason why they alwaies â—up in a corner taking great care that nothing fall out of their hands upon the floor and so the whole house should be repolluted When the Master of the family hath made an end of searching then he saith what leaven soever is in my hand what is not seen by me that which I have not found out let it all upward and downeward bee like unto the dust of the earth Upon the morrow of the eve of the passeover they begin to bake their spiced and unleavened cakes The meale whereof they are made ought to be ground at the mill at least three daies before that it may be cold enough to the end that the lumpe may not leaven up The millstone must be new picked and new linnen is also to be used which if it cannot be got it is necessary the old be throughly shaken for it is ordinary for them to be moist by reason wherof the meal may cleave unto them which in grinding may intâ—rmixe it selfe with that which is new and sweet appointed for the celebration of the Festivall The chest also wherein this pasehall meale is put ought also to be lined with linnen lest some corns of a divers sort should be mingled there withall The water which they use in kneading their dough they call Mitzuah or the water of the commandement which they draw out of the wels poure it into the vessels of celebration and carry it home about the setting of the Sunne the stars not yet appearing They carry it home covered for it is not permitted that the Sunne should shine upon this water for the space of 24 hours together For as the Sun sends out its beames upon the earth for the space of twelve houres in the day and cannot with his raies pierce into the fountaine So must it be covered for the twelve houres in the night by which meanes the Sun comes not at it by the space of a whole naturall day The Master of the family is bound to draw the water out of the well or pit with his owne hands and never think himselfe to worthy to undertake such a business for it is recorded that in ancient daies a certaine King of Israel upon a certaine time tooke the first fruits of the trees and in his owne person carried them upon his shoulders into the garners When they begin to knead the dough then the Master of the family saith All the crums that fall from this lump shall be accursed signifying by these words that whatsoever falling upon the earth becomes leavened ought to be given unto or left for the mice as also that he utterly disclaimes all challenge thereof They worke their dough in a cold place whither the Sunne hath small or no accesse which is likewise farre distant from the oven lest the lump might wax hot and be in danger to be leavened The Mistrisse of the house usually takes a certaine portion of the foresaid lump which in the Law is called Challâ—h and making a cake thereof saith Bâ—essed bee thou O God our God who hast commanded us to set aside an unleavened cake as it is written He tooke of the basket of unleavened bread that was before the Lord one unleavened cake and a cake of oiled bread one wafer and put them upon the fat and upon the right shoulder Lev. 8. 26. Upon the uttering of these words shee casts the cake into the fire or furnace that it may be burnt to ashes before any of the other be put into the oven
ought to drinke off in lieu of a thanksgiving as Rabbi Bechai writes for the foure great deliverances mentioned by Moses in those words I will bring you forth from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will rid you out of their bondage and I will redeem you with a stretched out arme and with great judgement And I will take you to me for a people and I will be your God which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians I will bring you out from under the hands of the Egyptians there is the first I will redeem you with a stretched outarme that 's the second I will take you to me for a people there 's the third I will be your God c. there 's the fourth In remembrance of which foure deliverances they take off foure whole cups of wine in the time of the celebration of the passeover lest they should seem forgetfull of Gods benefits The reason why after these their cups they curse the Christians in a praier called Schepoch is according to Rabbi Bechai in the foresaid place because God shall poure upon the enemies of the Jewes the Christians and all others foure cups of his wrath and vengeance and make them drinke the dregs thereof as it is written Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send thee to drinke it And againe Babylon hath beene a golden cup in the Lords hand that hath made all the earth drunken The nations have drunke of her wine therefore the nations are mad Againe He shall raine upon the wicked snares fire and brimstone and vapours of smoake this shall be their portion to drinke Againe There is a cup in the hand of the Lord and the wine thereof is red as for the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall drinke them and suck them out If the Jewes could rightly weigh and ponder the scope of these words and parallell them with other places of holy writ they might easily finde that this cup is in the first place filled for them according to that which is written by the Prophet saying I took the cup at the Lords hand and made all the nations to drinke to whom the Lord had sent me To wit Jerusalem and the Cities of Judah and the Kings thereof to make them a desolation and an astonishment an hissing and a curse as it is this day Pharaoh King of Egypt and his servants his Princes and his people When therefore the Jewes have drunk off and digested this fearfull cup they will have but a slender stomack to reach it out unto the Christians From all that hath been said we may conclude that the Jewes keep not the passeover according to Moses his institution and Gods command but according to the traditions of the Rabbines which with them are in farre greater account then the commanements of God as is apparent in the Talmud Wherein is extant a huge tract concerning the celebration of this Feast upon which the Rabbines have written whole Books and Commentaries To leave them to their vanities let it bee our consolation That Christ our passeover is sacrificed for us and therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malicioâ— snesse but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth saying with John Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and with St Peter knowing that we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from our vaine conversation received by tradition of the fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as a lambe undefiled and without spot which was ordained bâ—fore the foundation of the world but declared in the last times for our sakes let us learn not to be ashamed CHAP. XIV Of the manner how the Jewes celebrate the seven daies of the passover and put a conclusion to the Festivall VVHile the Feast of the Passover lasts every morning betimes they repaire to the Synagogue they sing Psalms as they are wont to doe upon the Sabbath say many prayers make sale diversly of the book of the law they take two several bookes of the Law out of the Arke calling forth five men to reade some sections out of the same If the passeover fall upon the Sabbath then they call out seven men When the Priest blesseth the people the prayers being ended then he spreads abroad his hand because it is the assertion of their Doctors that the majesty of the Lord rests upon them who hereupon have given a strict inhibition that none in the meane while should presume to looke upon his own hands unlesse he will incurre the danger of blindnesse Praiers being ended every man returns unto his own house where he fals to his dinner with a merry heaâ—t When a speciall caution is to be had that he eate no more then necessity requires that they may the night following with greater alacrity satiate their stomacks with those three cakes mentioned in the former Chapter Great diâ—putes arise what labors it is lawfull to undertake what meats may be boiled and eaten upon this day for it is not lawfull to boile more then they can eate yet notwithstanding it is allowed to set on the great pot and to fill it with flesh For by this action no danger can accrew unto them though the whole be not that day consumed Much flesh is the cause of much good and the more is put in the pot it will tast the better in it selfe and make the fatter pottage yet though this be tollerated yet it is not permitted to roste more then they may with ease devoure for one joint upon the spit is never the better tasted for the neighbourhood of his fellow And againe meate is farre more delightsome to the palate when it is piping hot then when it is cold That which may be boiled upon the eve of the Sabbath or any Festivall and not lose its taste before the nextday they may then boile it if not it is lawfull sor them to boil it upon the Sabbath day or Festival the great Sabbath only accepted as also the beating of pepper and other spiâ—es which once beaten do quickly lose their proper reâ—ish yet a ceremony is to be used for they must bray with the smal end of the pestle and also make the mortar to leane more to the one side then the other that a certain differeâ—e may be observed between the labors of the week and those of the holy day It is no offence for the mother to wash her infant with hot water in the time of this Festivall although a Christian did make it hot It is not lawfull to take the match out of one lampe and put it unto her If any desire that a wax light should not be altogether consumed he may set it in the water that when the flame comes to the water it may be
three times towards the North three times towards the South heaving it also in the last place over his head then suffering it to becke unto the ground In all these severall postures carrying himselfe much like unto a fencer in the tossing advancing and shouldering of his pike Then they pray againe and againe begin to shake their bundle of boughes thereby giving to understand that they are triumphant conquerours of all sinne and inquity having a conceit that by the noise of their branches they have so lashed whipped away and terrifyed the devill that hee dare never any more presume to accuse them before God for their sinnes and offences The next thing they put in practice is concerning the Book of the Law which some or other goes and takes out of the Arke and laies it upona Deske and instantly thereupon every one in the Synagogue circles about the pew or desk with the bundle of branches and orenges in his hand This they dâ—efor seven daies together in remembranâ—e that the wals of Jericho being by their fathers compâ—ssed about sseven daies fell flat unto the ground and the men thereof subdued unto Israel hoping withall that the wals of the Roman Empire shall likewise be demolished and the Jewes become the conquerours Lords and Masters of the Christians which Rabbi Bechai affirms in expresse words saying This our enâ—ircling or compassing used by us at this day upon this Festivall is a certaine sign unto us of the state of the time to come wherein the wall of Edom that of the Romane Monarchy shall be throwne downe and all the Edomites shall bee destroied and rooted out according to that of Daniel which he delivers concerning the fourth beast which shaddowes out unto us the Roman Monarchy in these words I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horne spake I beheld even till the beast was slaine and his body destroied and given to the burning flame In that day shall the mount Sion and Jerusalem rejoice which were formerly called Midbar or a desart as it is written Thy holy Cities are a wildernesse Sion is a wildernesse Jerusalem a desolation The same Prophet saying also in another place That Sion ought to rejoice and Jerusalem to be glad and clap her haâ—ds because the Lord will take vengeance upon Edom that is upon the Roman Empire as it it written The desart and wildernesse shall rejoice So much Rabbi Bechai out of which we may easily gather how much good the Jewes wish unto us Christians in the time of this their Festivall Yet in their books of Common Prayers it appeares that in former times they have been more invective against us then they are at this day for there they pray that God would smite us after the manner that hee smote the first born in the land of Egypt And that in a prayer which begins Ana hoschiana where the expresse words are Smite our enemies as thou smotest the first born in Egypt and make them subject unto us c. Where by their enemies they understand us Christians to whom they are now in bondage The first shaking of these Festivall branches being ended they shake them very often in the processe of their prayers taking two bookes of the Law out of the Arke out of which they read certaine sections with a bawâ—ing ostentation but very little attention and lesse devotion The second day they hallow equally as the first not that they are enjoined thereunto by the command and law of God but by reason they are not assured what day of September may precisely be accounted for the fifteenth and hence it is that they make two holidaies when one onely is required Eâ—ery evening so long as the Feast endures the Master of the family repeats a certaine prayer whereby hee makes the daies of the Feast to be discerned and differenced from those which are appointed for labour and travell in our ordinary vocation giving thanks unto God that the Feast hath been celebrated in such a good manner The foure daies following are onely esteemed holy in part but upon these also they sing and pray very much shaking their palm branches If any one of these foure daies chance to be the day of the Sabbath then among other things they read a certaine Chapter out of the Prophesie of Ezekiel concerning the dreadfull war of Gog and Magog beleeving and writing that Gog shall be slaine in this month and they delivered out of bondage shall be brought back into their owne land there for ever to have a peaceable habitation The seventh day is likewise by them kept holy whereon they say the prayer called Hosanna Rabba Helpe O Lord our strength because therein they intreat the Lord for to help them against all their enemies and to send them a good and fruitfull yeare For the first day of this month is the first day of the new yeare of yeares properly so called according to which they frame the computation of their yeares In the morning of every one of these daies they early wash themselves in hot or cold water goe into the School or Synagogue light many candles sing and pray â—ervently and with a great deale of ostentation take seven books of the Law out of the Arke and lay them upon the pew or deske which as was formerly related they compasse about seven times having their bundles of palme branches in their hands which are knit together with willow After every severall encompassing putting one of the seven books of the Law into the Arke againe Rambam Rakanat and Bechai with many other of the Rabbines Commenting upon the 14 Chapter of the 4 book of Moses blush not to affirm that God upon the seventh day at night reveales unto them by the moone what thing soever shall befall them the yeare following and that in this manner Upon this night they goe out into the fields by moone-shine some with their heads uncovered other having onely a linnen cloth tied about them or a vaile upon them which they suffering to fall upon the earth stretch out their armes and hands If any mans shadow in the moon-shine seem to want an head it is a certaine signe and token that such a one shall that yeare either lose his head or dye some other death If any seem to want a singer it presages the death of some of his friends if his right hand of his son if his left of his daughter But if no shadow at all appeare then that man shall undoubtedly dye and therefore if he have appointed a journey hee should hereby bee warned to let it alone lest he should not returne in safety This the Rabbines prove from those words of Moses Their shadow is departed from them Num. 14. 9. The Rabbines interpreting that a shadow which properly signifies a defence Yet they say that though a man cannot behold his shadow as upon this night that for this reason he should not
and herein with great joy and gladness fulfil the will of thee their God and Creator who art the true worker and whose works are truth Thou hast spoken to the Moon to renew her self by her often change which renewing is as a beautiful Crown and a great ornament unto the head of every one that is in his mothers womb even to all the Israelites as saith the Prophet Esay who ought to renew themselves even as the Moon doth that they may praise and honour their Creator for the name of his Kingdom a name highly to be reverenced Blessed be thou O Creator Blessed be thou O Moon Blessed be he who made thee Blessed be thy Lord blessed be thy Maker At these words they leap three times upwards towards heaven the higher the Caper is the better it is in esteem Then they go on saying Even as we O God leaping towards thee cannot come near unto thee even so all our enemies bending their forces against us cannot approach to hurt us Here again they make a stay saying that of Moses three times Fear and dread shall fall upon them by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as 〈◊〉 stone till thy people passe over O Lord till thy people passe over which thou hast purchased hereby praying against us Christians For a conclusion of this prayer one par saith peace be unto you and the other answer Peace be unto you peace be unto you and to the Israel of God This benediction or blessing they for the most part bestow upon the new Moon upon the Sabbath thereof which Sabbath they sanctifie with a due solemnity putting on their new apparel in honour to the new Moon which they blesse and give it a court-like welcome with great joy and rejoycing I cannot but here insert a certain Dialogue set down in the Talmud between God and the Moon which Rabbi Simâ—on the son of Pazzai thus relates It is written God made two great lights the greater to rule the day the lesse to rule the night Then said the Moon unto God O Lord of the whole world tell me I pray thee Can two Kings reign together and wear one and the same Crown To whom God made answer and said Go hence and lessen thy self She replies O my Creator shall I therefore be lessened because I have spoken before thee that which is true and right Then said God Go and bear rule and dominion both by day and night But quoth the Moon What great honour shall I reap from hence or what dignity shall accrew thereby A burning Candle at noontide what doth it profit Then the Lord bids her be gone saying that the people of Israel should number their dayes times and seasons according to her course and motion which she denies as impossible for to this end they ought to have an exact knowledge of the two Tekuphoth or Tropicks as also of the two Solstices as it is written They shall be for signes and times and dayes and years Then God makes her this answer Go thy way for many great and learned men shall take unto them this thy title as James the less Samuel the less David the less But all this cannot appease her which when he perceived he said offer a propitiatory sacrifice for me because that I have lessened the Moon And hereupon Rabbi Simeon the son of Sakis saith How much doth that Goat differ from others which is offered in the time of the new Moon of which the Lord said this shall be a propitiatory sacrifice for me who have offended in lessening the Moon So far the Talmudist The Rabbines diversly dispute what is the true sence and meaning hereof They who are of ancient dayes are of opinion that at the beginning the Sun and Moon were equal in light which they prove out of the words of Moses saying God made two great lights But so soon as the Moon murmured against God and would sit as Queen and suffer none to share in dominion with her but be sole Monarch in the celestial Orbs God debased her for her pride takes away her own light and caâ—sed her to borrow of the Sun and hence are say they those immediately following words of Moses The greater light for the government of the day and the lesser light for the government of the night whereas he formerly made no such difference but simply caâ—ling them two great lights And furthermore that God hearing the Moon complain of this her hard usage and mis-hap repented of that he had done and caused a propitiatory sacrifice to be offered for this his offence at every new Moon This opinion the modern Rabbines reject as a blasphemy against God considering that he is just and cannot commit iniquity neither is any wickedness found with him Wherefore they have very much tortured and rackt their inventions to finde out the true sence of these words diversly interpreting the word Alai written with Gnayn as Rabbi Bechai testifieth CHAP. XVIII Of the Feast of the new year how the Jews prepare themselves to the celebration thereof and how God at the time of this Celebration judges the Israelites for their sins and offences IT is written in the tract Medrasch Socher Tobh that at the same time when the Sanhedrin or that great Councel of the Jews is gathered together to set down and determine a certain day for the Celebration of the feast of the new year which begins the first day of the moneth Tesri or September and hath also agreed thereupon then God calls a Senate of Angels whom he sends into the earth to enquire see and know whether the time of the Celebration of this feast be determinately appointed which they presently put in execution and returning unto God declare unto him the day whereon the feast will be kept which when God by their relation understands he also decrees to fit in judgment and to judge the world upon the very same day as it is written God is gone up with a merry noise the Lord is gone up with the sound of a trumpet Then the two judgement seats are set the cushions laid the books opened and that great Senate of Angels sits down before him As it is written And I beheld till the thrones were set up and the Ancient of daies did sit whose garment was white as snow and the haire of his head like the pure wooll his throne was like the fiery flâ—me and his wheels as burning fire Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand thousand thousands stood before him the judgment seat was set and the book opened In the Talmud we have an excellent story to this purpose Rabbi Iochamen saith that at new-years-tide three books are opened one for them who are extreamly wicked and ungodly as Atheists and lnfidels another for them who are just in a most perfect manner the third and last for them who are betwixt both in an indifferent manner godly
no rivers they dig a well in their cellar or garden concerning the breadth and depth whereof they are diverse in opinion as also how much water may be contrived in the same At eventide they likewise repair unto the Synagogue where they continue praying untill it be night at what time the feast begins welcoming it with great joy and many acclamations So much for the preparation now for the feast it self but before we give you any tast thereof hearken what the Prophet saith concerning these men of Juda Your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear No man calleth for justice no man contendeth for truth they trust in vanity and speak vain things they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity They hatch Cockatrice eggs and weave the spiders web He that eateth of their eggs dieth and that which is trodden upon breaketh out into a Serpent CHAP. XIX Of the Feast of the New-Year NEw-years-day according to the Jewish Almanack falls continually upon the first day of September which is the beginning of their civil year according to which account they date all their bils contracts and bargains This computation they ground upon the time of the creation of the world which was as they affirm upon the first of September Soe that they now reckon the years from the creation to be five thousand three hundred eighty foure or thereabouts Whence we may see how far they vary in their number from the Christians even by the space of two hundred twenty three years This first day of September is to be sanctified and kept holy by the Jews being a thing commanded by God himself saying Speak unto the children of Israel and say In the seventh moneth in the first day of the moneth shall you have a Sabbath for the remembrance of blowing the trumpets an holy convocation Ye shall do no servile work therein but offer sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord. Though Moses make no mention of the new-year in these words yet following an ancient tradition of their ancestors they begin their civil year as upon this day being the first of September which is the seventh moneth accounting from March in which begins the new-year of their festivals The chief reason why it is called the feast of trumpets is because the Priests in old time were wont as this day to repair to the Temple and blow upon trumpets that hereby the people might be warned and pricked forward to render thanks unto God with a chearful and merry heart for the blessings and favours plentifully powred upon them in the year last past that he hath preserved them in safety and redeemed their souls from death and that with fear and trembling truly repenting them of their misled life they may appear before God upon the day of reconciliation upon which an attonement is to be made between God and his people The Jews at this day instead of a trumpet use a Rams horn the reason whereof shall hereafter be related The manner of the Celebration followeth After evening prayer they begin the feast by the consecration of a bowl of wine and a certain prayer appointed for the day they account it as a signe of good luck if their wine be new and sweet Every one salutes his fellow with God send you a good new-year or pointing to the books of which we made mention in the former chapter they say Thou art registred for one who shall be partaker of a prosperous year to whom the other makes answer and you also that is as much as if he had said The Greator of heaven and earth hath ordained thee for a good new-year The little children run unto the chief Rabbine and aske him blessing upon whom he laies his hands and prayes unto God to send them an happy year From the Synagouge to their own houses where they finde the table neatly spread and sumptuously furnished and that with no small deal of provision They presently fall aboard the first dish whereupon they make an assault is a Platter full of dainty Apples steeped in Honey of which every one tasting a bit saith God send us a merry New-year then proceeding with great jollity and mirth to the stuffing of their empty guts Amongst other things the fore-mentioned Rams-horn is laid upon the table in remembrance of the Ram which being catched in the thickets was sacrificed by Abraham in the place of Isaac Others write that they lay it upon the table to signifie that they shall become the head and not the tail according to that promise of the Lord by Moses The Lord shall make thee head and not the tail and thou shalt be above onely and not beneath Which promise is made indeed unto the Jews but with that condition to keep all his Commandments to observe and do them But they understood a mastery and dominion over the Christians to be the tenor thereof which that it may come to pass they daily pray to God above They eat fish for the most part of the best sort they can procure upon this night to shew that their good works merits shall multiply and increase even as the fishes in the sea Fruits of all kinds are no novelty unto them as Almonds Cucumbers Grapes Gourds Leeks Lupines sweet yet grosse pulse and such like The Leeks represent their enemies because they shall be rooted out of the earth and perish utterly for the Leek in the Chaldee tongue is called Crate which is derived from a Verb signifying to Cut and hereupon when they have eaten their Leeks they say Let all our enemies all them that hate us be uttterly cut off When they eat the sweet Pulse which they call Silka they say Let our enemies perish from among the midst of us When they eat the Almonds which they call Timarim they say Let our enemies be consumed and blotted out When they eat the Gourds called Kara they say Let every evil thing which is definitely determined against us be abolished and come to nothing and let our good works and deservings be read and published before the God of heaven The morning come they repair to the Synagogue more early then at other times singing many Psalms and saying many Prayers They take the book of the Law twice out of the Ark reading some sections out of it as in imitation of Ezra who did the like Nehemiah 8. but God knows in a far different manner After their Haphtarah or Lecture out of the Prophets is ended one goes up into the Pulpit and sounding the Rams horns at several times distinctly bellows out thereupon thirty words some with an equal others with an interrupted tone If the trumpet give a shrill and pleasant sound they take as a certain signe that a good and a happy year will then befal them but if on the contrary the sound be dull and hollow or perhaps none at all it
of God and a good work to fill their Panches and cram their Guts this night with the Cocks and Capons and soundly to liquor their throats then to fast the day following Alwayes provided that supper be ended before sun-set for then the feast of reconciliation begins and they are to dress themselves in neat and fine cloathing upon which they weare a surplice or garment of choise linnen coming down unto their feet hereby shewing unto other that the next day they shall be pure and clean from their sins and offences and like unto the Angels These garments they put on in honour to the festival the celebration of which consists not in eating and drinking being sottishly ignorant that the worship of God is of more worth then either Hence it is that the Lord complains by the mouth of his Prophet Hear O heavens and harken O earth for the Lord hath said I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse his masters crib but Israel hâ—th not known my people have not understood Ah sinful nation ab people laden with iniquity a seed of the wicked corrupt children they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the holy one of Israel to anger they are gone backward What have I to doe with the multitude of your Sacrifices saith the Lord Hosea also saith O I srael return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Take unto you words and turn unto the Lord and say unto him Take away all our iniquity and receive us graciously and so will we render unto thee the calves of our lips So much of the preparation to the feast of reconciliation CHAP. XXI Of the Feast of Reconciliation COncerning the institution of this feast we may finde it recorded in the third book of Moses that the tenth day of the siventh moneth shall be a day of reconciliation it shall be an holy convocation unto you speaking to the Israelites you shall humble your soules and offer sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord And ye shall do no work that same day for it is a day of Reconciliation to make an attonement for you before the Lord your God For every person that humbleth not himself the same day shall even be cut off from his people And every person that shall doe any worke that same day the same person also will I destroy from among his people Ye shall do no manner of work therefore this shall be a law for ever in your generations throughout your dwellings By reason of this injunction and command the Jews at this day are wont to meet in their Synagogue about sunset before it be night carying with them their wax lights and placing them in their Candlesticks singing and praying with a beastly roaring and bellowing outcries The women which stay at home to keep the house light many candles in the bed chambers and other places blessing them and stretching out both their hands towards them as they do also upon the sabbath hereby making a difference between the festival dayes and others appointed for ordinary employments and manual labours If these lights burn clear they take it as a very good signe of some consequent hap believing that their sins are remitted that they shall see many happy dayes and not come as yet into the prison of the grave If they give not a clear light but that which is only glimmering dark and obscure if they melt away the tallow or wax distilling drop by drop then they begin to be sorrowful conjecturing this to be a signe of some evill ready to befall them They spread their floores pavements and hearths with Coverlets in some places as in Wormes they straw their hearths with rushes only lest they upon the day following by often stooping to the fire to chafe and rub themselves might defile and spot their holiday attire or otherwise lest they should seem to commit Idolatry which is altogether unlawful the reason hereof is that which is written You shall not pave your pavement with stone to bow and prostrate your selves thereupon That it is said in the forecited text of Moses that they ought to humble themselves before the Lord they understand to be meant of a five-fold kinde of pleasure from which they are to abstain And first of all from meat and drink even from sunset to ssnset from the beginning to the ending of the solemnity Boyes above twelve and wenches above eleven years of age women also who have been above three dayes in child-bed are not exempted from this fast A sick man may eat lawfully if he desire it If not the Physitian thinking it meet and convenient for the regaining of his health meat is to be administred unto him Secondly every one is bound to goe without shoes barefoot only it is permitted unto old decrepit and sickly persons to whose health the coldness of the season may bring hurt and dammage Thirdly no man ought at this time to annoint himself with oyle or wash his body with water for pleasures sake Fourthly no man must enter into a bath to wash himself no he may not be allowed to dip his finger in the water much less to wash his hands or face Yet if any have occasion to ease himself after the deed done he may dip his fingers into the water so that he goe no farther then the formost joynt Some take a wet linen cloth and make clean their hands therewith yet it is accounted as a thing very dangerous and neerly coming within the confines of an offence for if the cloth should chance to be so wet as the drops of water might be pressed out of it it were enough to prophanâ— the festival Fiftly the men must not come at their wives no not so much as touch them and keep themselves out of their company as though they were in their monethly flowers Before they begin their solemn prayers usually made by them after sunset at the begining of this festival three of the chief Rabbines walking through the Synagogue saying with a loud voice Bischibhah schel mahelah ubischibhah schel mattah etc. the meaning of which words is that they give power and license to the whole congregation as well to the bad as the good among them to pray unto God To this end also the Chaunter goes unto the Ark where the book of the law is kept opens it and saies a long prayer which begins Col nidere Vaâ—ssare uschehue that is to say All Vowes Covenants and Oaths c. the first part whereof he repeats three times every time with a more lofty and joy resounding voice then other The sum whereof is that all the vows oaths promises covenants asseverations and protestations which any one of the Jewish nation hath not kept the year past to be void remitted disanulled the breach thereof not to be acknowledged for an offence to be utterly taken away and pardoned
N. witness N. the son of N. witness This kinde of divorce is not in every place put in execution they chuse a place of some fame and note neer adjoyning some notable River whither fome of the chief Rabbines are cited by a writ if some others be not there resident The Jews are very much for this carnal divorce writing vast volumes in way of Commentary upon it but by reason of the hardness of their heart not once dreaming of the spiritual whereby they are severed from the Lord of hosts Hence remaining aliens from God and according to their desert vagabonds over the face of the whole earth CHAP. XXX Touching the manner how a Jewish woman divorceth her self from the brother of her deceased husband IT is recorded in the fifth book of Moses that the husband of a woman dying his brother being unmarried shall go in unto her take her to wife and raise up seed unto his brother that his name be not put out of Israel And if the man like not to take his brothers wife then shall she go up to the gate and accuse him before the Elders and lose his shooe from off his foot and spit in his face and answer and say so shall it be done unto the man that will not build up his brothers house But in process of time this custome was disanulled and it was ordained by the Rabbines that none should take to wife the widow of his deceased brother but rather for to free himself from her for his greater honour should suffer her to draw â—ff his shooe which kinde of divorce iâ— called by the Rabbines Câ—â—litra which is performed in this manner The widow calls unto her five witnesses who must be men of another family with whom she being about to appear before the chief Rabbine summoâ—s her husbands brother â—lso to the same place When they are come the Rabbine asks the woman whether three moneths are gone and pâ—st since the death of her husband Whether her husband dying left behinde him a brother unmarried Whether he that is there present be the natural brother of her husband begot by the same man Whether they think themselves fit to beget children to raise up seed or an heir unto the dead as also to themselves now superviving What age they are of and lastly he asketh the widow whether she be fasting or not For if she have formerly taken any meat she may not lawfully spit in the face of her husbands brother Then he asketh the dead mans brother whether the woman there present was wife unto his deceased brother when he was alive Whether he will take her to wiâ—e or else be divorced from her by the Chalitza or drawing the shooe from off the heele If he answers that he is not willing to marry her then a shooe is brought unto him made after a singular fashion with latchets and other necessaries this he takes and leaning himself against aâ— wall puts it on upon hâ—s right foot naked Then comes the woman unto him and â—aith this my husbands brother would not raise up seed unto him and for this cause from henceforth he shall not be called my husbands brother Hereupon stooping towards the earth she unlooseth his shoe with her right hand and drawing it off his foot spits in his face and that with such force that the five witnesses may see the spittle and saith Thus shall it be done unto him that will not build up his brothers house Then the witnesses and all the whole company cry Chalutz hannahal that is the shoe is drawn off Thus are these two separated each from another that they may severally attend their own employments Here ariseth a great question among the Rabbines how a woman suppose that she wanted the right hand could draw off the shoe Some of them have permitted that in such a case she may â—se her teeth to the unloosing of it Others solve it in another manner If the brother to the man deceased will not suffer the ignominie of this discalceation and the woman be about to marry unto another then is he bound to pay a great sum of mony unto her that he may be freed from her If her husbands brother dwell in another City then is she her self compelled to follow him and to indent with him about marriage Concerning this custom of raising up seed unto the Brother was that Question proposed by the Sadduces to our Saviour that seeing seven brethren had one after another married the same woman whose wife she should be in the Resurrection out of which we may conclude thus much that it was in use among the Jews even in Christs time for the brother of the man deceased to go in unto and marry his brothers wife CHAP. XXXI Of the uncleanness of the women and how they carry themselves in the time thereof IT is not lawful for a woman in the time of her uncleannesse to enter into the Synagogue to pray to name the name God or to handle any holy book as it is written Let her touch no holy thing nor come into my Sanctuary untill the dayes of her purification be finished yet some of the Rabbines have licensed it They of the most holy sort write that what woman soever being admonished of these things abstains from them shall lengthen her own dayes So soon as she hath the least knowledge of her own uncleannesse she separates her self from her husband for the space of seven dayes in which time she dare not touch him sit upon one stool with him eat at the same table drink out of the same cup sit opposite unto him nor speak unto him face to face When the one would give any thing unto the other they are not wont to do it by throwing but they lay it down upon some table or stool that the one being for a good space removed the other may take it up When the man lieth with his wife in her uncleannesse then the children which they beget prove Lepers and they affirm that this is one of the chief reasons why there are so many Lepers among the Christians to wit carnal copulation in the time of the womans uncleannesse hence scattering abroad venemous and bitter words against us in writing among the vulgar which I will not now relate When any woman of the Jews hath reckoned up the seven dayes of her uncleannesse she holds on and addes seven dayes more of her purification unto them after which time she finding her self throughly purified she clothes her self in white robes takes another woman with her and goes to wash her self in cold water and that so nakedly that she must not have her smock to cover her In the Winter time in some places they are wont to powre hot water into the Cistern in which she bathes her self But in other places they are wont to wash themselves in cold water as well in Winter as in Summer They are bound to dive so deep that not an
the king of Edom or the Pope of Rome and being conqueror shall kill a great part of his army and also cut the throat of the king of Edom make desolate the Roman Monarchie bring back some of the holy vessels to Jerusalem which are treasured up in the house of Aelianus Moreover the king of Egypt shall enter into league with Israel and shall kill all the men inhabiting about Jerusalem Damascus and Ascalon which thing once noised over the whole earth a horrid dread and astonishment shall overwhelm the inhabitants thereof The seventh miracle They say that at Rome there is a certain piece of marble in shape resembling a Virgin so framed and fashioned not by mans workmanship but by the Lords hand To this Image shall all the wicked livers in the world gather themselves and burning in lust towards it shall commit incest with it Hereupon in the same marble will the Lord forme an Infant which by a certain rupture shall issue out of it This infant shall be called Armillus Harascha Armillus the wicked and shall be the same which the Christians call Antichrist His length and bredth shall be tennâ—els the space betwixt his eyes and the palm cross wise His hollow eyes red his hair yellow like gold the soles of his feet green and to make his deformity compleat he shall have two heads He coming to the wicked king of Rome shall affirm himself to be the Messias and god of the Romans to whom they easily give credit and make him king over them All the sons of Esau shall love and stick fast unto him He shall bring under his yoak the whole Roman Monarchie and to all Esaus ofspring glorying in the name of Christian he shall say bring me the law which I gave unto you Which they shall presently deliver together with their book of Common-prayer which he shall receive as true and legitimate acknowledging that he gave that law and book unto them desiring that they will beleeve in him These things once finished he shall send his Embassadors to Jerusalem to Nehemiah the son of Husiel and to all the Congregation of Israel with this mandate to bring their law unto him and confess him to be God At the report of this fear and wonder assault their souls and Nehemias accompanied with three hundred thousand voluntiers of the tube of Ephraim carrying also the book of the law with him shall come unto Armillus and out of it read him this sentence I am the Lord thy God thou shall have none other Gods before me To whom Armillus making answer shall deny any such sentence to be extant in their law and that therefore they ought to acknowledge him for a God following the example of the Christians and other people of the earth Then shall Nehemiah the son of Husiel in that instant command his followers to binde Armillus and entering the field with thirty thousand armed Nobles shall put to the sword two hundred thousand of his assistants For this cause Armillus greatly enraged shall gather together all his forces in a deep valley to fight against Israel and to destroy no small number of Jacobs posterity There shall Messias the son of Joseph breath his last whom the holy Angels shall take hide and casket up with other Patriarks of the world The Israelites shall be struck with such astonishment their hearts shall fleet like water but Armillus himself shall not know of the death of their Messias who otherwise would not leave one of them alive Then shall all the Nations of the earth banish the Jews out of their dominions no way permitting them any longer to be their coinhabitants Moreover such trouble and distresse shall at that time perplex the Jews as hath not been from the beginning to the world Then shall Michael come and fan away the wicked in Israel as it is written At that time shall Michael stand up the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time Then the remnant shall flee into the wildernesse where God shall try and purge them after the same manner that silver and gold is tried in the Furnace For the Lord saith I will purge out from among you the Rebels and them that transgresse against me And again Many shall be purified made white and tryed but the wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand Then shall the whole remainder of Israel be in the wildernesse for forty five dayes the chief of their fare being grasse leaves and herbs and that Scripture shall be fulfilled in their ears I will allure her and bring her into the wildernesse aud speak comfortably unto her The truth of this appears out of that of the Prophet From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety dayes Blessed is he that cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty dayes But goe thou thy way till the end be for thou shalt rest and stand in the lot at the end of the dayes Conceive that forty five being added to the precedent number of ninty the last number of 1335 daies doth arise In that time all the wicked in Israel shall perish who are unworthy to be copartners in such a deliverance Finally Armillus invading Egypt with great power shall subdue it as it is written The land of Egypt shall not escape From Egypt he shall muster his forces for Jerusalem striving with might and main once more to make it a desolate heap And he shall plant the tabernacle of his palace between the Seas in the glorious holy mountain yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him The eighth miracle The Archangel Michael shall arise and shall thrice winde a mighty trumpet as it is written It shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpets shall be blowen and they shall come that were ready to perish in the land of Assyria and the outcasts in the land of Egypt and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem Again The Lord God shall blow the trumpet and shall goe with the whirlewinds of the South At the sound of this trumpet the true Messias the son of David and the Prophet Elias shall appear and manifest themselves to the devout Israelites inhabiting the wilderness of Judea Then shall they receive incouragement the weary hands shall be lifted up and strength shall visit the feeble knees All the Jews also wheresoever dispersed over the whole earth shall hear the sound of the trumpet and at last confess that God in mercy hath visited his people and by a plenary deliverance hath been gracious to his inheritance and all the captives of Ashur shall be gathered together But
the sound of this trumpet shall blast the Christians and people of the world with fear and astonishment casting them into horrid maladies Then shall the Jews gird up their loins and with many a weary journey seek to revisite their Jerusalem Messias also the son of David together with his harbinger Elias and all the faithfull his followers in Israell with great joy shall come into Jerusalem So soon as this pierceth the ears of wicked Armillus he will babble out how long will this abject and base people thus behave themselves and shall once more with a great army of Christians hasten to Jerusalem to give battel to to their newly inaugurated soveraign But God shall not permit that the Israelites should fall out of the fire into the pit but speaking unto the Messias shall say unto him Come thou and sit at my right hand and to the children of Israel sit you still hold your peace and quietly expect that great deliverance which the Lord this day will impart unto you Then shall the Lord rain from heaven fire and brimstone as it is recorded I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood and I will rain upon him and upon his bands and upon the many people that are with him an overflowing rain and great hailstones fire and brimstone Then shall Armillus with his whole army die and the Atheistical Edomites the Christians they mean who laid waste the house of our God and led us captive into a strange land shall miserably perish then shall the Jews be revenged upon them as it is written The house of Jacob shall be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame and the house of Esau that is we Christians as the Jews interpret whom they ' Christen Edomites shall be for stubble This stubble the Jews shall set in fire that nothing may be left to us Edomites which shall not be burnt and turned into ashes The ninth miracle At the second blast of Michael his trumpet being long and loud all the graves in Jerusalem shall open and the dead arise Messias also the son of David together with Elias the Prophet shall restore to life Messias that good son of Joseph reserved under a certain gate At the same time shall all the Congregation of Israel send Messias the son of David as an Embassador to the remnant of the Jews superviving the last slaughter dispersed here and there among the Christians and other people of the earth to summon them to Jerusalem Then shall the kings of the nations without delay carry the Jews inhabiting their quarters upon their shoulders and in Chariots unto Sion I think this will come to pass much about the Greek Calends The tenth miracle At what time the Angel Michael shall blow the trumpet the third time then shall God bring them forth who border upon the rivers Gosane Lachlacke Chabore and also inhabited the cities of Juda and they in number infinite and immesurable together with their infants shall enter into Moses Paradise the earth before and behinde them shall be nothing but a flame of fire which shall consume all which is needful for the preservation of life among the Christians and other people When the ten tribes of Israel shall return out of the land of their captivity then the pillar of the cloud of the divine glory and majesty shall encompass them as it is written the breaker up is come before them they have broken up and have passed through the gate and are gone out by it and their king shall pass before them and the Lord on the head of them Moreover God shall open unto them fountains flowing out of the tree of life wherewith he shall refresh them in their journey lest at any time thirst should annoy them For the Lord saith I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the vallies I will make the wilderness a pool of water and dry land springs of water Again They shall not hunger nor thirst neither shall the heat nor sun smite them for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them even by the springs of water shall he guide them To comfort them against these ten signes foregoing the coming of the Messias the most of which pretend great calamity and affliction to the Jews they have a tenfold consolation The first is that the Messias is certainly yet for to come according to that of the Prophet Behold thy king cometh c. The second that he shall again gather them together being dispersed over the face of the whole earth as it is written I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the coasts of the earth and with them the blinde and the lame the women with childe and her that travelleth with childe together a great company shall return thither From which place we may learn thus much that if any went unto his grave blind or lame the same shall God raise up cloathed with the same imperfections that one may more easily know another yet the Lord shall so perfectly cure the lame that they shall skip like Roes as the Scripture witnesseth Then shall the lame man leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumbe sing for in the wilderness shall the waters break out and streams in the desert The third is that God shall raise up the dead as it is written Many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall arise these to life eternal they to shame and everlasting contempt The fourth is that God shall build them up a third temple according to that plat-form and fashion which Ezekiel hath described cap. 41. ver 1. 2 3. The fift is that the people of Israel shall be the sole Monarchs of the whole world their dominion stretching from one end of the earth unto the other according to that of Esay 60. 12. The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish yea these nations shall be utterly wasted Yea the whole world being turned unto the Lord shall be subject to his law as it is recorded For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent The sixth is that God at that time shall defeat and destroy all the enemies of his people that is the Christians and mightily to revenge himselfe upon them as it is written I will lay vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger The seventh is that God shall take away all diseases and maladies from among the people of Israel according to that The inhabitants shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquitie The eight is God shall prolong the dayes and yeares of the life of the Israelites So that they shall live as
long as the oake or other of that kinde for saith the lord as the dayes of a tree are the dayes of my people and my elect shall long enioy the works of their hands and againe there shall be no more thence an infant of dayes nor an old man that hath not filled his dayes for the child shall die an hundred yeares old bnt the Sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed which is as much as to say if any die at an hundred years of age it shall be said of him that he died as a little infant or in his infancy for at that time the years of life of the Israelites shall be equal to them of the fathers from Adam to Noah as Abenezra comments upon the place The ninth is that God shall so clearly manifest himself to the Israelites that they shall see him face to face As it is recorded The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see together because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Yea all the Lords people shall be Prophets as it is written It shall come to pass afterward that I will powr out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie your old men shall dream dreams your yong men shall see visions The last degree of comfort is that God shall quite root out of them all imbred lusts and inclinations unto evil as it is written A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh Hitherto we have delivered what we promised out of the book called Abhkas râ—chel in which though it be summarily set down what the Jews beleeve concerning their Messias as also the manner how he is to bring them back to Jerusalem yet I think not impertinent in this place a litle more largely to declare with what solemnities their Messias shal give them intertainement in their own land and with what happiness and felicitie they shall lead their lives under him When then the Messias hath gathered all the Jews together out of all the nations under heaven and from the foure winds of the earth and hath brought them unto the land of Canaan flowing with milk and hony then shall he cause to be prepared a sumptuous and delicate banquet inviting and friendly welcoming unto it all the Jews with great pomp and joy inexpressible At this banquet shall be dished up and served in the greatest beastes fishes and fouls that ever God created The worst wine that they shall drink shall be that whose grape had its growth in paradise and hath been barrel'd up and reserved in Adams Cellar unto that time The first dish in this feast shall be that huge oxe described in the book of Job to be of such great strength and magnitude named Behemoth This the Rabbines affirme to be the same oxe whereof David makes mention in his 50 Psalm and 10 verse All the beasts of the forrest are mine and the cattel Behemoth feeding on a thousand hills that is to say which every day eateth up the grass of a thousand hils But a man will aske what at length would have become of this oxe if he had lived so long seeing he had long since eaten up all his fodder The Rabbines learnedly answer that this oxe is stall-fed and remains always in the same place and that whatsoever he eateth on the day grows again upon the night in the same length and forme The second dish adorning the table shall be that vast whale Leviathan according to the Jewish tone Pronounced Lipiasan who is also described in the book of Job and mentioned in other places of holy writ Concerning these two beasts there hath bin handsomly compiled this tradition by the wit and ingenuity of the solid pated Rabbins in their Talmud it runs thus Rabbi Jehudah saith that what thing soever God created in the world he created it male and female and that without all doubt for he created the Leviathan yet least the he and she Leviathan by engendring should augment the number and at length by there monstrous magnitude and multitude destroy the whole world God gelded the male and killed the female reserving her in pickle to be meat for them that are just in Judah and feared him in the dayes of the Messias as it is written In that day will the lord with a sore and great and strong sword punish Leviathan the piercing serpent even Leviathan that crooked serpent and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea In the same manner he created that great ox called Behemoth feeding on a thousand hils male and female yet lest by multiplying they might fill and destroy the earth he gelded the male and killed the female reserving it for the Jewes diet in time to come as it is written Loe now his strength is in his loynes and his force in the navell of his belly he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him The third dish in this banquet as Elias Levita in his dictionarie named Tesbi out of the Rabbins reports shall be that horrible huge bird called Barinchue which killed and unboweld shall then be rosted Concerning this bird it is written in the Talmud she cast an Egge out of her nest by whose fall three hundred tall Cedars were broken down and the Egge breaking in the full drowned three score villages By this relation it is easie to conceive this bird to have been little inferiour in greatnes to the forementioned oxe and fish whence we may also collect how glorious a dish the Messias is to make of it for his guests and when there are many such birds Guls I think found in the land of Judah none ought to think that which is reported of this to be fabulous In the forementioned book of the Talmud we read of a certain great crow which was seen of a Rabbine worthy to be credited The relation runs thus Rabbi barchannah saith At a certain time I saw a frog which is as great as the village Akra in Hagronia well how big was the village It consisted of no fewer then threescore houses Then came a mighty serpent and swallowed up this frog Instantly upon this a great crow flying that way picked up as a small morsel both the frog and the serpent and taking him to flight sat upon a Tree now think with your selves how great and strong this tree must be To which Rabbi papa the son of Samuel making answer unless I had been in the place and with these mine eyes seen the very tree I would not have beleeved it Thus much the Talmudist Who dare give the lie to this Rabbine When that good man Kimchi commenting on the fifty Psalm and explaining the word Ziz hath there witnessed that Rabbi
Judah the son of Simeon did avouch Ziz to be a bird of that bigness that when he spreads abroad his wings he hides the body of the sun and wraps the world in darkness Furthermore on a certain time a certain Rabbine was upon the sea in a little ship in the middle of which he saw a bird standing of such an height that water came only to her knees which the Rabbine observing bespeaks his companions that there they might wash themselves seeing the water was not deep But a voice from heaven hindred the attempt saying unto the Rahbine see that thou do it not for now seven whole years are gone and past since a certain man let a hatchet fall in this very place which hath been ever since a falling and is not as yet come to the bottome By which a man may easily gather how long legs this bird had and how great her body ought to be in proportion to her feet Without doubt these birds keep their residence in the wood Ela in which a Lion is reported to live of such an unheard of portraicture that only to relate would strike a man with astonishment Of this Lion the Talmud thus fables When upon on a certain time the Emperor of Rome asked Rabbi Josuah the son of Hananiah what the reason was why their God compared himself unto a Lion and whether he was of so great strength that he could kill a Lion the Rabbine made answer that God did not compare himself unto an ordinary Lion but unto such an one as lived in the wood Fla to whom the Prince replied shew me that Lion Then the Rabbine by prayer obtained of God that the lion should leave the wood and come when hs was yet foure hundred miles distant from the Emperour he roared so terribly that all the women with child in Rome became abortive and the walls of the City fell flat unto the ground When he had come an hundred miles nearer he the second time roared so fearefully that all the teeth of the Romanes fell out of their heads the Emperour falling from his throne lay prostrate upon the earth half dead who with vehement entreaties begs of the Rabbin to send back the Lion which was likewise put in execution But these fables draw us too far from the smell of that fast which the Messias hath provided for the Jews in the land of promise The flesh of the foresaid Behemoth and Leviathan will not digest well without a Cup of older wine therefore the Messias shall broach that wine and give it unto his guests which was made in Paradise and was kept from the begining of the world to that time in Adams Cellar as it is written In that day sing you unto her a vineyard of red wins I the Lord do keep it I do water it every moment lest any hurt it I will keep it night and day again There is a cup in the hand of the Lord and the wine thereof is red it is full mixt he shall poure it out and the dregs therof all the ungodly of the earth shall drink and suck them up Before the supper be served in the Messias after the manner of Kings and Princes and others celebrating Festivals and Marriages shall present the Jews with pleasant sports and plaies to make them merry He will cause Behemoth and Leviathan to meet in some spacious place and there they shall play before the Messias to pass away the time and for his minds refreshing as it is written Surely the Mountains bring him forth food where all the beasts of the field play And again There go the ships there is that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein Then the oxe running hither and thither shall bend his hornes against the Leviathan which will greatly affect the Messias according to that It will be more grateful to the Lord then a bullock that hath borns and hoofs The Leviathan also shall come to encounter the oxe armed with his fins as an helmet not easie to be seen as it is written Who can open the doors of his face his teeth are terrible round about His scales are his pride shut up together as with a close seale Here shall be the summons to the battle and the first encounter begin most hot and furious but to small purpose for they being of equall strength neither can overcome the other but at last wearied out both shall fell upon the ground Then the Messias drawing out his sword shall slay them both as it is written At that day will the Lord with a sore great and strong sword punish Leviathan Now comes the Cooks part nothing but boyling and roasting and great provision for this sumptuous supper as it is recorded The Lord of hosts shall make unto all people in this mountain a feast of fat things of fat things full of marrow The fish shall be served up in parcels to the guests which done every one shall greatly rejoyee as it is written shall thy companions make a banquet of him shall they part him among the merchants This donative supper being ended the messias shall marry a wife the scripture being witness Kings daughters were among thy honourable women upon thy right hand stood the Queen in a vesture of gold So the Jews themselves interpret and the meaning is this as Kimchi professeth in his great gloss Among the honourable women which the Mossias shall have shall be the daughters of Kings For every King of the earth shall esteem himself highly graced so that he may give his daughter in marriage unto the Messias But the genuine and rightly so named wise of the Messias properly signified by the word Schegal shall be one of the most eminent beauties among the daughters of Israel she shall sit at his right hand without intermission abide in the Kings closet whereas the other shall stay in the supping room or house of the women not approaching the King unless it be his pleasure to send for them In this bond of Wedlock the Messias shall beget children after he shall die as other mortals and his children shall sit upon his throne after him as it is written He shall see his seed he shall prolong his dayes and the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hands that is as a Rabbine expounds it The Messias shall live to a good old age and last shall be brought to his grave with great solemnity and his son shall reign after him and after his death his posterity shall possess his seat For the manner of life which the Jews shall have under their Messias First of all the remnant of the Christians and other people which fell not by the hand of the Jews shall make hast and build the Jews houses and Cities not for hire but of free accord till their ground plant them vineyards yea bestow their very goods upon them moreover
Kings and Princes shall be their servants whom they have subdued They themselves shall be cloathed in costly aray all their Priests anointed shall be holiness to the Lord as it is written The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls and their Kings shall minister unto thee for in my wrath I smote thee but in mercy have I had favour on thee therefore thy gates shall be open continually they shall not be shut day nor night that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles and that their Kings may be brought for the nations and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish yea those nations shall be utterly wasted and again strangers shall stand and feed your flocks and all the sons of the alien shall be your plow-men and your vine-dressers But you shall be named the Priests of the Lord men shall call you the Minister of our God you shall eat the riches of the Gentiles and in their glory stall you boast your selves Oh here with hunger and thirst how are the Jews opprest Although some of them satisfie and appease both without the sweat of their own brows gaining many a million for which many a poor Christian suffers toile and vexation 2. They shall have a new and wholsome aire as it is written Behold I create a new heaven and a new earth the former shall not be thought upon by the benefit of this aire they shall enjoy their health and prolong their life even as the men before the flood In their hoary old age their strength and agility shall not forsake them but remain in the same temper as in their youth as it is writen They who are planted in the house of our God shall flosrish in the courts of the Lord they shall bring forth more fruit in their age they shall be fat and well liking 3. The seed once sown shall for ever grow up increase and ripen of its own accord after the manner of Vines which require but one plantation as it is written They shall revive as wheat flourish like a vine his smell is like Lebanon Whensoever any one shall desire rain for the watering of any particular Field Garden or the smallest herb therein the Lord will pour out upon that place and on that onely without delay for saith the Prophet Ask you rain of the Lord and he shall create lightnings and give you showres of rain Then shall they gather their fruits and wine with great quietnesse and security and shall not be molested by any enemy as it is written The Lord hath sworn by his right hand and by the arm of his strength I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies and the sons of strangers shall not drink thy wine for the which thou hast laboured but they that have gathered it shall eat it 4. No war nor rumour of war shall any more be heard in the land and there shall be a firm and secure peace established not only between man and man but also between man and beast as it is written I will make a covenant for them in that day with the beasts of the field with the fowls of heaven and creeping things of the earth I will put away the bow and the sword and war from the earth and make them to sleep secure And I will espouse thee unto me for ever and ever I will marry thee in justice and judgement in mercy and commiseration Again The Cow and the Bear shall feed their young ones shall lie down together and the Lion shall eat straw with the Ox. The Wolf shall lie down with the Lamb and the Leopard with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lion and the faâ—ling together and a little childe shall lead them 5. When any war or discord ariseth among the Gentiles then the Messias shall reconcile them and renew the league amongst them so that there shall be no more mutiny as it is written He shall judge among the nations and rebuke many people he shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks nation shall not lift up sword against nation nor learn war any more Then shall the Iews live in everlasting joyes make new marriages sing praise and glory to God without ceasing shall be full of the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord as it is written In this place of which you say that it is forsaken shall again be heard the voice of joy the voice of exultation the voice of the Bride and the Bridegroom the voice of them that say Give thanks to the Lord of hosts And again the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is full of water Briefly the happiness of this holy people shall at that time be so immeasurable that neither can the heart of man conceive it or the tongue yeeld the least expression thereof Which things thus ordered and declared leaving the Iewes in this their prosperous estate I will put a period to my labours and hide the secret of their faith from the Christians seeing I have attempted more then they themselves if they could have ruled the matter would have permitted What I have done already will not be pleasing unto them in which I have exposed to every mans eye the full anatomy of their life and belief The Christian Reader may easily perceive by that which hath been said that the faith of the Jews and their whole religion is not grounded upon Moses but upon meer lies false and forged constitutions fables of the Rabbines and inventions of seduced Pharisees And that therefore it ought no more to issue out of the mouth of a Christian that the Jewes stand for the Law of Moses but rather with Jeremy that they are strong defendants of the false worship of the true God not suffering themselves any way to be drawn from it And with our Saviour to affirm that they make the Commandments of God of none effect by their traditions in vain they worship him when they teach nothing but the mandates of men honouring him with their lips but in their hearts are far from him In their words they professe to know God but in their works they deny him these are the men whom the Lord abhors who being disobedient unto his word are unto every good work reprobate as the Apostle Paul hath recorded By which it is more manifest then the light of the Sun at noon-tide that the punishment is now fallen heavie upon them wherewith Moses threatned them that the Lord should smite them with madnesse blindnesse and astonishment of heart that they should grope at noon day as the blinde gropeth in darknesse And this appears most clearly and is more then evident from this that they miserably pervert and contrary to all reason with an impudent front invested with a dull ignorance expound and interpret the word of God O merciful
which they attribute great vertue and strange operations hidden ones surely for they have not made their appearance for one thousand six hundred and odd yeares This they use to say standing and that with great devotion There is a certaine story very pat to this purpose When the Jewes were banished out of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian the Roman Emperour The Emperour commanded that three ships filled with Jewes should be set to float upon the sea having neither mast nor sailes This his command being put in execution the ships being tost with a most violent tempest were parted asunder and cast upon the shore of three divers countries the names whereof were Lovanda Arlado and Burdeli which are now worne out of remembrance All the Jewes in one of those ships were very courteously entertained by the Lord of that country in which they landed who in a most bountifull manner gave them land to till and Vineyards After his death there arose another King who handled and vexed the Jewes most inhumanely even as Pharaoh did their Ancestours saying unto them that he would try whether they were true Jewes or not after the same manner that Nebuchadnezzar tryed Hananias Misael and Azarias and if you can walke without hurt in the middle of the fiery furnace as they did then will I confesse that you are true Jewes indeed To whom the Jewes made answer entreating him that he would doe unto them as Nebuchadnezzar did to the three former which was to grant them three dayes respite that they might pray unto God to deliver them Which when he had granted two brothers called Joseph and Benjamin and their Couzen Samuel came together to consult what was best to be done who determined neither to eat or drinke for three dayes together Which while they put in practise every one having a severall prayer which they joined in one and repeated it without intermission night and day untill their allotted time was ended In the morning of the third day one of them said he had dreamed that he heard one read a verse out of the Bible in which Kt was twice and Lo three times reiterated but what it meant or where it was he was altogether ignorant Then answered one of the other two and said this verse will be a helpe and comfort unto thee for hereby is signified that God will send thee help from heaven and it is written in the forty third chapter of Isaiah and the second verse the words wherof are these Kâ— when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall Lo not overflow thee Ki when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt Lo not bee burnt Lo neither shall the flame kindle upon thee Upon the third day a huge fire was provided earely in the morning an immense number of people flocking to the execution who were very desirous to be present at the burning The congregation being compleate these three men did commend their bodies to the mercy of the fire singing and praying untill all the wood being consumed they came out of the fire without the least touch thereof This miracle the foresaid men divulged in what place soever they came whereupon it was ordained and commanded that this prayer should bee said every Munday and Thursday morning in every Synagogue and place of publike prayer which the Jewes observe and keepe unto this very day hoping that by the power of this prayer they shall be delivered from their long continued captivity and tedious exile But alas their hopes will be frustrate so long as they despise and set at nought the Saviour of their soules Christ Jesus and persevere in their horrible superstition This Fable is here related more at large then it is by Antonius Margarita out of the booke Colbo The prayer beginning Vehu racham so much esteemed of them is written in the forme following He is mercifull forgiving iniquity and not destroying the sinner He oftentimes turns his anger from us and suffers not his fury to arise O God I beseech thee take not thy mercy from me let thy meeknesse and truth alwaies preserve me Help us O God our God and gather us from among the Gentiles c. In briefe the sum of this prayer is this They beg of God that hee would vouchsafe to pardon their sinnes take pity upon the desolations of their City and Temple to gather them from the foure corners of the earth and never suffer his inheritance to bee ashamed In this prayer they are also mindefull of us Christians against whom they thus petition O God how long shall thy strength remaine in captivity and thy beauty in thy enemies hand O Lord God stirre up thy strength and revenge us upon all our enemies so shall their might be turned into weaknesse and they shall be ashamed and perish These last words are in many Copies left out by reason of an injunction laide upon the Printers by the Christian Magistrate an empty space being left that they may either write them or eâ—se inquire what is wanting These things thus finished they fall the second time upon their faces and saying many other prayers as was declared in the former Chapter they beseech God that hee would remove his anger farre from them and not deliver them into the hands of their enemies but being mindefull of the Covenant that hee made with their fathers would make their seed like unto the starres of Heaven for multitude After that they have for such a space either kneeling or standing poured out their souls in prayer unto God then followes the narration of that pompe and state which they exhibite to the booke of the Law they reade weekly Lectures out of it according as they were enjoyned by Ezra the scribe The manner followeth In every Synagogue they have the booke of the Law to wit the Pentateuch written in long schroles of parchment sewed together at the ends thereof are fastned certaine pieces of wood for the safer keeping and more easie carriage of the booke of the Law This book is kept in a certaine Arke or Chest standing continually against some wall of the Synagogue Before the Ark is a little doore and before it a hanging made by the Art of the embroiderer This is of divers sorts and the more solemnn the festivall is the richer are the hangings Those are had in greatest esteeme with them whose outside is adorned and wrought with the shapes of divers birds for such were alwaies an ornament upon the old Arke of the Covenant The booke is alwaies wrapt up in a linnen cloth in which are characterised some Hebrew words and divers names That which is the most outward of all is oftentimes a linnen cloth much like unto a little coat or cloake made of silke but sometimes of puregold upon which they hang some silver plates fastned to a golden chaine in which is written Kether thorah that is to say the crowne of the Law or Kodesch adonai
fills their hearts with sorrow being a very probable token of an unfruitful and dangerous season When the trumpeter hath done his office the whole Synagogue trumptes out those words of David Blessed is the people O Lord that can rejoyce in thee they shall walk in the light of thy countenance Morning prayer ended they return again to their houses where they eat and drink and sound upon their Rams-horns For it is a position of the Rabbines that at this time every one ought to be merry and jocund being assured that God hath been gracious unto him in pardoning his sins and offences and not because he hath fill'd his panch and liquored his throat for this would God rather impute unto them as a sin then recompense as a good work After this their repast every one man woman and child hasten to the water or to some Bridge thereupon to make Taschlich that is to say to cast their sins into the water and the ground of the practise is that of the Prophet He will turn again and have mercy upon us be will subdue our iniquities and cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea The Jews thus gathered together upon the Bridge so soon as they behold the fishes accounting the sight as a prosperous signe and token they caper alost and shake their garments over the â—ishes dreaming and vainly conceiting that by this their foolery they have shaked off all their sinnes upon the fishes backs which swim away with them even as the scape-Goat which carried away the sinnes of their ancestors into the wilderness Others write that they do it in remembrance of Abraham who travelling to sacrifice his son Isaac upon Mount Meriah which was upon the first day of September Satan met him and turned himself into a great River which at the first took him only to the knees but by and by it reacht his neck Abraham perceiving himself to be in such a distresse and that he was in danger of drowning cried mightily unto God who heard his prayer and turned the water into dry ground as it is recorded in the tract Medrasch rotosoha Evening being come they fall again to eat and drink and make merry as they were wont and in this manner they celebrate the feast of the New-year in great security with much mirth and jollity for the space of two dayes together I conclude with that of the Prophet If a man walk in the spirit and would lie falsly saying I will prophesie unto thee of wine and of strong drink he shall even be the prophet of this people To which alludes that of Sophonie Her Prophets are light and wicked persons her Priests have polluted the Sanctuary they have polluted the Law CHAP. XX. How they prepare themselves to the Feast of Reconciliation and the celebration thereof THe time between New-years-day and the tenth of the same moneth upon which they keep the feast of Reconciliation is called by Jews the ten penitential dayes for which space they fast and pray very much and are wonderful desirous to become holy and religious that if God should have written any of their names in the book of death and determined to afflict their souls with an unfortunate year he might at the contemplation and sight of their penitent life and practise of good works repent him of the evil and have mercy upon them transcribing their names in the book of life and sealing the judgement Every morning so long as these dayes endure while it is as yet very early they confesse their sins three several times do not proceed to the excommunication of any one neither do they call any man into judgement or force any one to take an Oath Upon the ninth day they forsake their beds betimes in the morning frequent the Synagogue sing and pray So soon as they return home every male old and young takes a Cock and every woman a Hen into their hands the master of the family doing likewise and saying these words Foolish men are plagued for their offence and because of theâ—r wickednesse Their soul abhorred all manner of meat and they were even at deaths door So when they cried unto the Lord in their trouble he delivered them out of their distresse He sent forth his word and healed them and they were saved from their destruction O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men that they would offer unto him the sacrifice of thanksgiving and tell out his works with gladnesse And again If there be a messenger with him or an interpreter one of a thousand to declare unto man his righteousnesse then will he have mercy upon him and will say Deliver him that he go not down into the pit for I have received a reconciliation that is a Cock which shall be a reconciliation unto me When he hath ended this his repetition he finisheth the reconciliation waving the Cock three times about his head and saying at every time This Cock shall serve instead of me he shall succeed in my stead who deserve death he shall be my reconciliation he shall die for me but I shall enter into life and blisse with them that are righteous in Israel Amen This he doth three times as was said before once for himself once for his children and once for strangers which sojourn with him according to the custome of the high Priest in ancient dayes as it is recorded in the third book of Moses In the next place he takes the Cock and kills him and drawing and gathering the skin together about his neck first meditates with himself that he is worthy to have his own throat cut for his sinnes and offences and then cutting the Cocks throat thinks himself worthy to be punished with the sword After this he takes the cock and with all his might throws him upon the ground thereby signifying that he deserves to be stoned to death for his sins and wickedness lastly he puts him upon the spit and roasts him thereby giving others to understand that to be burnt in a fiery furnace doth not equalize his desert These four kindes of death the poor Cock undergoes for his Master The intrals out of commiseration they commonly cast upon the house top that it may also be partaker of such a sacrifice Others say that they do it because sin is rather an internal then an external thing and that it cleaves fast to the bowels of the Cock some Crows coming by may claw them up and flee away with them into the wildernesse even as the scape-Goat in the Old Testament ran away with the sins of the people into the Desert They take all possible pains and care to procure a white Cock for the sacrifice They will by no means admit of a red one because such an one is full of sins seeing sin it self is red also as it is written Come now
let us reason together faith the Lord though your sins were as crimson yet shall they be as white as snow though they were red like scarlet they shall be as wooll Now if the Cock be white he is not polluted with sin and so is able to bear the sins of others which being red he could not possibly do being stufft with his own sins already Antonius Margarita in his book of the faith of the Jews registers it as the affirmation of some of the Hebrew Doctors that an Ape is a more fitting beast for this dayes sacrifice then the Cock because in his face he more represents a Man Yet they chuse a Cock rather then any other creature because a Man in Hebrew is called Gebher Now if Gebher offend Gebber must also in justice suffer for his offence And therefore the Jews considering the burden of death too grievous to be born and the punishment too heavie spare themselves and kill the Cock which the Babylonian Talmudists call Gebher to satisfie the judge of all flesh and by this shift Gebher offends and Gebher suffers for it Blinde and beastly Jews how do they trisle and think to puzzle God in that manner that he cannot know a Cock from a Man Wo wo unto them for this their horrible blindnesse above example without pattern Such another exposition relishing of the same pate we finde in the book called Schebet Jehudah written first in Hebrew then translated into the Teutonick tongue by the Jews and printed at Cracovia in Poland some twenty two years ago It is a certain disputation between a Jew and a Christian before Alphonsus King of Portugal wherein when the Christian urged divers places of Scripture proving Christ to be the true Messias and amongst others that of the Psalmist My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The Jew made answer that it was a certain property belonging to the holy Scripture to be capable of divers interpretations amongst which that is the best which may be confirmed and declared by other places of holy writ But as for the forecited place there were many other Scriptures which did evidently prove that it cannot be understood of Christ And first of all saith the Jew I will rell thee what answer a learned Rabbine did upon a certain time make unto the King of Spain Yesterday said he unto the King I being very wroth with my houshold Cock because he had troubled me in my studies with his crowing musick I smote him with my staff put him into a dark room where he ceased his crowing yet withal this my anger being never a jot abated I did beat him till I had rent his skin and disjoynted his bones then I put him into a Pot and covered it according as I thought meet and convenient which served him for a Coffin for there he died After his death there happened out a miracle for his life returned unto him again and he began to sing and crow as at former times and this is the true meaning and exposition of these words urged by the Christian out of the 22 Psalm Which appears so to be if we parallel the place with that of Jeremiah in the third of his Lamentations and the first verse I am the man that have seen affliction in the rod of his indignation He hath led me brought me into darknesse but not light Surely he is turned against me be turneth his hand against me all the day My flesh and my skin hath he caused to wax old and he hath broken my bones He bath builded against me and compassed me with gali and labour He hath heaged about me that I cannot get out he bath made my chains heavy And when I cry and shout he shutteth out my prayers I am the man Am Gebher that is to say I am the Cock for the word among the Talmudists â—ignifieth so much Who bath see naffliction In the rod of his indignation There is the rod with which the Cock was beaten He bath led me there is his flight into darkness and not into light there is the place of obscurity into which he was put He turns his hand against me there is the second beating after that he was put up in his close prison or the motion whereby he thought himself to move in the pot My flesh and my skin hath he caused to wax old that is to say he hath torn and rent it He hath broken my bones or cut me in pieces He hath builded against me He hath shut me up in the pot He hath set me in dark places that is he hath put me in the pot and covered it And when I cry and shout which words signifie unto us that the Cock sung and crowed after he was dead So much foppery out of the book called Schebet Jehudah out of which we may plainly see after what a ridiculous manner the Jews interpret and make a mock of the holy Scripture and prove themselves to be really possessed with that phrensie blindness and hardness of heart wherewith Moses threatned them We may see also with what art these jugling mountebanks and quacksalvering impostros can metamorphose a man into a Cock and again turn a Cock into a man Truly I am forced to believe that if the Prophet Esay had used the word Gebher in his fifty third chapter the man that is there made mention of should of necessity the Jews being translators have been a very Cock Seeing the Prophet calls him Isch machobheth a man full of sorrows despised and not esteemed One that hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows even Christ who was beaten for our sins and wounded for our transgressions The chastisement of our peace was upon him by whose stripes we are healed Yet the Jews will not acknowledge receive and confess such a man but chuse one whom they can kill put upon the broach rost at the fire and fill their filthy paunches withall But woe and alass they may long look for health from the wounds of an household Cock The Greek Calends will first have place in the annual computation before they receive from hence any setled peace of conscience which evidently appears to be true at the houre of their death when destitute of all comfort ready to despair they câ—y out my death is my reconciliation and satisfaction for my sins A miserable poor and cold comfort indeed when not only death temporal but eternal both of soule and body must be the wages for their sin This the Jews cannot comprehend seeing God in his just judgment hath shut their eyes that they cannot see nor understand Pitifull and lamentable is their case in which with an unwilling heart I leave them and descend to a further declaration of their preparation to this festival After that they have made an attonement for their sins by the sacrificing of the Cock they repair to the place where the dead are buried where they say many prayers as they did