Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	pardon_v	sin_n	transgression_n	2,321	5	9.8948	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30785	The Jewish synagogue, or, An historical narration of the state of the Jewes at this day dispersed over the face of the whole earth ... / translated out of the learned Buxtorfius ... by A.B., Mr. A. of Q. Col. in Oxford.	Buxtorf, Johann, 1599-1664.; A. B., Mr. A. of Q. Col. in Oxford.	1657 (1657)	Wing B6347; ESTC R23867	293,718	328

before the sun be up say their prayers and beg pardon for the sins which they have committed The Jews of Germanie also use to doe the like some foure dayes at least before the feast of the new-year moreover they meet every morning and evening through the whole moneth in the Synagogue sounding a rams horn not that they are so commanded by Moses but yet in remembrance of him who when he went the second time into the mount to fetch the tables of the law commanded a horne to be blowen that the people should take notice hereof and not transgress and say Arise and make us Gods which may goe before us as for this Moses which brought us forth out of the land of Egypt we do not know what is become of him Secondly they blow the rams horn that every one may seriously ponder and weigh the last judgment and be terrified with the meditation hereof that they may be affrighted and fear for shall a trumpet be blowen in the City and the people be not affraid and so consequently be hurried along to a bitter condolement eager contrition hearty confession and serious repentance of his sins and offences for even as a King makes some of his servants to blow a trumper that every watchman may keep diligent watch and be ready armed at a moments warning because the enemy approacheth So it is needful for the Jews in the moneth of August which is as herauld to the new year to sound the Rams hornes for to warn every man to repent him of his wickedness that they may more easily resist their enemy Sin Lastly the Talmudists those subtil pated doctors say that the reason why they blow the Rams horns at this season is for to put Satan to flight and to put him to a grievous torture and to make him forget the day appointed for the celebration of the New-years feast lest he should come then and appearing before Gods tribunal accuse them for their sins and offences Upon the Eve of the New-year they rise sooner from supper then ordinary for they have many Prayers to poure out unto God for the remission of their sins They usually eate before day hereby signifying that they are not like the Christians and other people who fast upon the E●es of their festivals y●t howsoever he that fasts offends not In Germany the Jews alwayes eat something before morning prayer alwayes provided that they fill not their bellies too full especially when they are to say many prayers whereupon it comes to pass that though they make great haste in the saying of their prayers yet they commit no offence therein because their guts are not crammed and full stuft which would be a great hinderance to the speedy gallop of their tongue in posting over their petitions Yet some of the more religious sort who would be accounted more holy then other doe fast and that in imitation of a King who imposes a great tribute upon such or such a City and coming with a great power of men commands payment to be made He being yet ten miles distant from the City the chief men and burgesses thereof come and meet him and say unto him O Gracious Soveraign we are poor and have nothing and what shall we give unto thee And so intreating him in the most humble subjective manner that the hams of an Alderman can personate to remit the tax or tribute of which the King remits the third part being brought down by their earish kissing congees When the King is yet five miles from the City then a troop of Citizens of another order and mean estate come to give his Majesty some gaping salutation making the same request with that of the former to whom also he forgives another thirds When he comes neerer to the City then yong and old flock about him and bespeak his Grace in the same language The king then moved by the multitude of petitioners forgives the whole sum In like manner God the King of all the earth willing to make Israel give an account of their life past and of all the sins by them committed requires yea enjoynes every one to give satisfaction in his own proper person whereupon the holy men and chiefest in Israel fast the Eve of this festival and the Lord to recompence them remits unto them the third part of their sins and offences It is therefore enacted that they of the better sort should fast that they may with the more facility obtain their petitions and also some of a lower ranke fortie dayes together whiah are set aside for the doing of pennance Some one must likewise fast upon the day of reconciliation of which day more hereafter and then God will forgive unto them all their sins and grant them a pardon for the same Morning prayer being ended they goe out of the Synagogue into the place where they bury their dead thereby signifying that unless God will be pleased to pardon their sins they are no better then they who are dead and laid in their grave They therefore pray unto God to have mercy on them and that for the merits of those just and holy Jews who are interred in that place Here they distribute great store of alms that their poor may not want wherewithall to celebrate the festival Midday being past the men send for the barber and cause him to use all his art and skill in the trimming of them thereby giving others to understand that they are not like unto other people who sorrowing suffer their hairs to grow and encrease But our security say they banisheth all grief seeing we are certainly assured that God the King of the world will have mercy upon us redeem us from our transgressions and graciously absolve us of all our sins and for this very reason they enter the bath or wash themselves in some running water that the day following they may appear purified and clean before the almighty tribunal It is also recorded that certain Angels fly in the aire who being placed over the world and men descend into these parts below where they being in a manner polluted must necessarily purge and cleanse themselves in the siery stream Dinor mentioned by Daniel before they sing praises unto God Now if it be necessary that such creatures as the Angels are must wash themselves before they may be suffered to praise the Lord how much more is it required at the hands of man who is so vile and loathsome While the Jews are a purifying their bodies and stand even up to the ears in cold water then they make confession of their sins in the form commonly used This their confession comprehends in it two and twenty words according to the number of the letters in the Alphabet at the repetition of every one of which the confessor beats his brest and then hides his body in the water craving so much courtesie of his fellow as to bear him witness Where they are neer

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 ●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 the●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