entred the Synagogue and sung that prayer beginning Berachu in a soule ravishing delightfull and harmonicall note then hell breaks loose and the gates of purgatory flie open the soules in both leape out into the earth and run into every river fountaine or any other water they can come by desiring for a time to coole their scorched substance and this is the cause why the Rabbines most severely commanded that none should dare to draw any well dry upon the Sabbath day lest these poore and miserable soules should be utterly destitute of such a refreshing as we may read in their Minhagin In the meane time that they are a praying in the Synagogue there come two Angels the one good the other evill who standing before the door of the Synagogue and hearing any pray diligently and also reade attentively that Scripture Thus were the heavens and earth finished and all the hoste of them and what followes concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath They bring him to his owne home and putting their hands upon his head say Loe this coale hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged Rabbi Jose saith in the name of Rabbi Juda that these two Angels bring every man to his home when hee returnes from the Synagogue And if these Angels entering the house of any Jew finde the Sabbath lampes burne cleare the table covered and furnished with all necessaries the bed neatly made then saies the good Angell It is the pleasure of God Almighty that these things should be in the same state the next Sabbath day that I have now found them in To which the evill Angell is forced to say Amen But if they finde all things out of order then the evill Angell saith these things shall be in the same manner the next Sabbath to which the good Angell sore against his will must say Amen likewise When they are departed the Synagogue and every man returned to his owne house then one saying unto another God send you an happy Sabbath they instantly fal aboard for it is written Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it which last word is in the Hebrew lekadescho by reason of which they give this glosse upon the Text. So soon as the Sabbath is begun remember that thou also have thy Kaddasch in readinesse that is to say remember solemnly to imitate the same with a cupfull of wine Hence it comes to passe that in many Synagogues presently after the ending of evening prayer a bowle of wine is ready prepared because some strangers or poor people which have no wine at home may bee there present This being consecrated is reached forth unto them unto the end that may celebrate the beginning of the Sabbath in that very place Whosoever hee be in the Synagogue that blesseth the wine he tastes it not but gives it to some young boy to drinke thereof for he is not accustomed to drinke of the same unlesse it be at home at his own table where also he usually consecrates the same Instantly then upon their returne they sit downe to table upon which ought to be salt a bowle of wine and two loaves covered with a diapernapkin Then the master of the family takes a bowle full of wine and beginning the Sabbath with blessing it saith I am Haschischi vaie cuâ—â—a haschamaijm The foure first letters of these words note unto us that ever blessed name of God JeHoVaH the name expressing his eternall essence And by reason of this mystery the Rabbines have added the two former words being the last of the first Chapter of Genesis unto the two latter being the first of the second and by reason hereof they rise up at the repetition of them giving a due reverence to the name of God The words interpreted run thus The sixth day the heaven and earth were finished and all the host of them And on the seventh day God ended his worke which he had made And he rested on the seventh day from all his worke which he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he had rested from all his worke which he had made Here in the mean time he inserts an admonition saying O my Lords you Rabbines have regard unto the prayer that every one in particular may in the same manner bee excused thereby as if he had said it himselfe and so he holds on to pray and say Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world who hast created the fruit of the vine Blessed be thou O Lòrd our God King of the world who hast sactified us by thy commandements and given us thine holy Sabbath and out of thy love and good will towards us hast left it as hereditary unto us in memory of thy workes in the creation For it is the beginning of the gathering together of thy Saints and the memoriall of our departure out of Egypt Thou hast chosen and sanctifyed us out of all other people and hast left us the Sabbath of thy holinesse as a legacy of thy love and good will towards us Blessled be thou O God who sanctifyest the Sabbath In the next place he drinks some of the wine and reacheth it to the the rest that they may doe as he hath done Then he takes the napkin from over the bread and taking the two loaves unto him cuts them not before he hath said grace contrary to that which he doth upon the daies of the weeke but presently saith By your leave my Masters and Rabbines blessing the bread in this forme Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world which brings bread out of the earth After this he breaks a piece of bread and eates imparting also to every one at the table a morsell which is of greater size then ordinary in honour of the Sabbath upon it is not lawfull for any to be niggardly then they eat whatsoever God hath sent While that the cup is in blessing every one casts a delightfull eye upon the Sabbath-lamps because that the Rabbines write that when any one travels upon the daies of the weeke the five hundred part of his sight departs from him for the regaining of which the beholding of these lamps in that time while the wine is consecrated is a soveraign medicine For the Hebrew word Ner signifying a light being doubled make in number fifty They cover the bread that it may not behold its owne shame the wine being present which is in the first place sanctified for the use of the Sabbath notwithstanding that the Scripture gives the bread the place when it saith I will bring thee into a land of wheate and barley of vines and figge-trees For here wheat is first named which is the materiall of bread yet neverthelesse it is the last of all to be consecrated for the use of the Sabbath which would be a great shame unto it if it should stand bare Others affirm
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
it is written early in the morning But when he speakes of the oblation for the seventh day it is written in the day of the Sabbath The meaning of which words is this The daily sacrifices were wont to be offered early in the morning before it was light instead of which they repaire at this day earely unto their Synagogue to say their morning prayers as was formerly declared But upon the Sabbath a longer stay was made and the sacrifice was not wont to be offered before perfect day Wherefore the Jewes ought to sleep larger upon this day then another and to goe later to morning prayer then at other times to recreate themselves for a longer space upon their couches for the joy and delight accrewing by the Sabbaths reproach When they are once come into the Synagogue they pray as at other times yet saying and singing more prayers and anthemes then ordinary in honour of the Sabbath Upon this day they doe not put on their phylacteries of which we spoke in the fourth Chapter and that because the Sabbath it selfe is a sign of the Jewish faith and that this was given to the Jewes onely and commanded by them to bee sanctified and therefore they have no need of other signes as the phylacteries and circumcision whereby a Jew may bee knowne from other men They bring the booke of the Law out of the Arke in that pompe which we specified in the ninth Chapter They read out of it seven sections of the Law for the performing whereof seven particular persons are called out Whosoever is called comes up by the doore next unto him and goes downe by the other because it is recorded of the people of Israel to have done the like For saith the Scripture the gate of the inner Temple which lookes unto the north shall be shut for the space of six daies wherein you may worke but upon the Sabbath day and upon the day of the Calends it shall be opened And the Prince shall enter by the way of that gate and shall stand at the posts thereof and the Priests shall offer his burnt offering c. Hence it appeares that when they come into the holy Temple upon the Sabbath day they came in at one doore and went out at another They are also accustomed to read some certaine sections out of the Prophets in which the same subject is handled that is treated of in the bookes of Moses This custome then had its originall when they were interdicted to reade the bookes of Moses in their Synagogues For at that time they began to read in the plaâ—e thereof a Lecture out of the Prophets which they named Hapharah which was as a certain exposition upon the Law of Moses This custome was in force in the daies of the Apostles for thus it is recorded For they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers because they knew him not nor yet the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day they have fulfilled them in condemning him Again Moses of old time had them that preached him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day And although at this day they are not prohibited to read and teach Moses in their Synagogues yet they keepe the custome of reading the Prophets for they cannot be too conversant in well doing They pray also for the soules of them who in their life time did not rightly sanctify the Sabbath For the Rabbines perswade themselves that these are tossed in hell from side to side both after and before the Sabbath and therefore they pray for them thereupon Their prayers in the Synagogue must not continue any longer then six a clock in the morning For it is forbidden either to fast or pray any longer according as their Doctors have collected out of that saying Thou shalt call the Sabbath Oneg For the word Oneg signifying delight or pleasure is written without the letter Vau which in numeration maketh six By which the Prophet would secretly insinuate that we ought not to fast after the sixt hour or the middle of the day because otherwise it would come to passe that the Sabbath should not be a pleasure but rather a vexation unto us Therefore morning prayer being ended they eate their second Sabbaticall meale making themselves merry in honour of the Sabbath If any have dreamed some ominous dream as the book of the Law to be burnt the beams of his own house to fall down his teeth to fall out of his head or such like he must fast untill it be late at night and that not without cause seeing such phantasticall meteors portend no faire weather If the jaw bones of any one in the time of sleep seem unto him in the time of sleep to fall out of their place such a dream is a good dreame because it betokens the teeth of all his enemies that intended evill against him If to eate be burdensome unto any and to fast a pleasure he may fast by statute If any cannot abstaine from teares he may weep by authority because such a ones lamentation is his owne delight his adversaries recreation both which are conducible to a sanctifyed celebration of the Sabbath Yetnot withstanding whosoever fasts upon the seventh day he must fast also upon the day following because he feared not to substract the pleasure due unto the Sabbath day Moreover it seemeth good unto the wise men among the Jewes that dinner being ended that somewhat should bee learned by study and some Chapters read oâ—t of the holy Bible For upon a certaine time the Sabbath complained unto God that every thing in this universe had a like unto it selfe of which it was onely destitute Then God instantly replyed and said The people of Israel shall from henceforth be thy mate for they upon the Sabbath day bend their study to the learning of the Law which if they did not they would at that time be altogether idle Then the Law posting unto Gods tribunall poured out its complaints and said When Israel shall returne into his owne land and one shall goe unto his farme another to his vineyard who shall then learn or study me God answered the Israelites shall doe it who resting upon the Sabbath shall practise nothing else By reason of these complaints it was concluded and thought meet that upon the Sabbath day after dinner every one should busie himselfe either in reading of the word of God or in collecting something out of their bookes of morality whereby they might be incited unto the feare of the Lord and so the Law and Sabbath might not have any more just occasion of complaint But alas how rare readers they are in these good books experience gives an evident demonstration for the whole weeks space time enough a man would think They speake not so much of their bargaines usury buying and selling as they do upon the Sabbath day At even-tide they returne againe into the Synagogue and prayer ended they fall to their supper
hath a most accurate dispute in his Madrasch or Exposition upon the Pentateuch which book is called Zeror hammor in English a bundle of Myrrhe Other interpreters in this place say thinking their opinion to be more plausible that the Jewes use to smell to the perfumes because the fire of hell the Sabbath yet lasting doth not stinke but so soon as the Sabbath is ended and the doores of hell set open that the soules of the wicked departed this life may enter againe into the place of torment then it begins to send out an ill savour against which the nosing of those odors are a present remedy as it is recorded in their Germane Minhagin They looke upon their nailes also because of their fruitfull growth which aâ—though they be alwaies cut upon the Friday yet notwithstanding they alwaies grow againe Others say that this is done in remembrance of that garment which God at the first made for Adam in paradise for it was of the colour of the nailes of a mans hand Others that all this is done to distinguish the nailes from the flesh which wonderfull consideration had its first originall from Adam Who when he saw the whole world wrapt up in darknesse weeping said Woe unto me for whose sinne alone the whole earth is darkned Then God suggested this into his mind that he should take two stones and strike the one against the otherpunc which he doing the fire sparkled out whereat he lighted a candle Then Adam marking that he was every whit naked the utmost parts of his fingers onely excepted he praised God with a greater admiration as we may read in the book called Colbâ— They poure some part of the conseâ—rated wine upon the ground for lucks sake because such an effusion prognosticates that house to become plentifully stored with all things necessary for the sustenanâ—e of life and that in such a manner that they shame not to write that in what house soever this wine is not poured out as water there is no blessing at all resident Some are of opinion that this pouring out of the wine to be done for the refreshing of Corah and his rebellious companions for the Jewes doe foolishly perswade themselves that these being swallowed up of the earth doe as yet remaine alive therein and are comforted by this consecrated wine A little before somewhat was delivered concerning the stinke of hell fire for the confirmation of which we have this story in the Talmud That wicked man Turnus Rophus upon a certaine time demanded of Rabbi Akibha in what respect the Sabbath did excell other daies of the weeke that they should prosecute it with so great honour The Rabbine replyed why doe mortals more honour thee then other men of the same mould because said the King my liege will have it so To whom Rabbi Akibha answered againe The King of Kings even our God himselfe wils us to give more honour and reverence unto the Sabbath then to any day in the weeke besides Turnus replies who can certainly assure thee that your Sabbath day is the seventh day and so the true Sabbath indeed perhaps you may celebrate it upon some other The Rabbine answers this may be proved 1. By a water-course of the River Sambation who estreame is so headstrong for the space of six daies that it roles huge great stones along with it by reason whereof it denies any one passage for the whole weeke but upon the Sabbath day it stands unmoveable not running at all in honour to the Sabbath 2. I can draw an evident argument for the demonstration hereof from thy fathers Sepulchre For all the weeke long the smoake and stench of hell fire iss ues out of it because for that space he is tormented therein but upon the Sabbath day the Sepulchre sends out no ill savour the reason is thy father at that time is come out of hell and takes his rest so that the fire thereof hath no power over him and for this very cause smoaks not upon that day When Turnus heard these words of the Rabbine he said unto him peradventure the time of his adjudgement to hell torments is now expired The Rabbine bids him goe unto thy fathers tombe the Sabbath now ended and see if it doe not smoake as yet Which Turnus hearing went and found it to be as the Rabbine had spoken This moved Turnus to a hainous enterprize for by enchantments he cals his father from hell and thus bespeaks him How comes it to passe said hee who diddest not sanctifie the Sabbath all thy life long shouldest now being dead observe and keep it How farre is the time spent since thou becamest so godly a Jew He answered My sonne whosoever living among you will not keep the Sabbath willingly in this place after death must be forced thereunto The sonne replies how are you occupied I pray you upon the worke dayes Upon them saith he some burns us with fire but upon the Sabbath day we enjoy our rest For upon Friday at evening a Proclamation goes forth declaring that the time of ceslation is now present and that the wicked should depart to celebrate the Sabbath which we hearing betake our selves to rest and in resting sanctifie the Sabbath Then in the end of the Sabbath when the Jewes have ended all their prayers then comes an evill Angell called Dumah who is our Master and commands us to returne into hell because the people of Israel have now put an end to their Sabbath Then wee recoiling into hell are scorched by the flames thereof untill the next Sabbath These are our infernall imployments If any have an itching desire to read any more concerning these horrible trifling fopperies let him reade Rabbi Bechai in parscha vaiischma Jethro that is in his exposition upon the eighteenth Chapter of Exodus where hee writes many things about the Sabbath Now seeing God in the Law of Moses and the Prophets oftentimes commanded the Jewes that upon the seventh day they should doe no manner of work and so abstaine from the prophanation thereof Hence ariseth a grand controversie among the Rabbines what may be done what left und one thereupon Concerning which matter there is a large tract in the Talmud upon which the chiefe and most learned Rabbines have written a Commentary so that whosoever could broach the most subtle and acute meditations concerning the genuine manner of sanctifying the Sabbath he was or certainly would have been accounted a teacher unto others I will onely repeat some few things conducible to the matter in hand First then whereas God in his Law commands that not only man but also the beast shall rest upon the Sabbath day The Rabbines with a curious kind of augmentation eâ—quire how far any beast as horse asse or others of the same kinde may lawfully goe upon the Sabbath day Whether also any of these creatures may be allowed to carry any burden thereupon This question is fully stated and that doctorâ€like
they did acknowledge even then when the whole World drencht in the Sea of Idolatry was ignorant of the true God the Creator of Heaven and Earth then began they to wax proud haughty and puâ—t up counting the Nations as dung and with a supercilious sore-front boasting themselves to be the hâ—â—ly and elect people of God the Law of God and Circumcision being the main pillars of this their ostentation And seeing they at that time actually possessed the Land of Promise offered their Sacrifices the sum of their wants must be a glorying in their City Temple Sacrifice and other kinds of worshâ—p for which if any one dare manage a reproof objecting that they are not the children of Abraham because God shall prosligate and destroy them because their hearts and ears are uncircumcised and God shall again scatter them among the Gentiles he shall upon the very instant be cauterized for a false Prohet and a Liar and destinated to the stake for bearing witnesse unto the truth Neither did they here put a period to their madness they stand firm in their foolish opinions imbracing the Covenant according to its outside the Law according to the letter the ceremonies oblations and sacrifices in their naked representation provoking not only the Prophets but God himself never regarding whether or no any true knowledge fear or reverence of his Majesty was implanted in their hearts For the attempting of these enormities the Lord conceives heavy displeasure against Israel terms them a sinfull Nation laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters which had forsaken the Lord and provoked the holy one in Israel and gone away backward whose hearts were obstinate their neck an iron sinew and their brow brasse Transgressors from their Mothers womb whose birth and nativity is the Land of Canaan their Father an Amorite and their Mother a Hittite a people rejected and accursed as Moses witnesseth He threatens them to baniâ—h them out of their own Land and to carry them into a Land which neither they nor their Fathers had known there also that they shall tast of his fury be slaves to their enemies and to make their City and Temple in which they so much rejoyced like unto Shiloe Lastly speaking to Esay the Prophet he saith Make the heart of this peole fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyespuch and heare with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed After the same manner God denounceth against them by Moses saying it shall come to passe that if thou wilt not hearken unto the voyce of the lord thy God to observe to do all his Commandements and his Statutes which l command thee this day that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee The Lord shall sinite thee with madness and blindnesse of heart Thou shalt grope at noon day as the blind gropeth in darkness and thou shalt not prosPer in thy wayes thou shalt be only oppressed and spoyled evermore and none shall save thee The fundamental then and prime cause of the blindness and obstinacy of the Jews is the just judgement of God upon them for their sins and the punishment due unto the same which came upon them because they heaRkened not unto his voice worshipping him with their mouth and with their lips drawing near unto him but in their hearts being far from him their service towards him consisting only in the commandements of of men as the Prophet Esay complains By which we may perceive that they soon left off to trace the way of Gods Commandements setling themselves upon their own carnal wisdome upon the sublime perspicuity of their Doctors who after Ezra were called Scribes as upon a new foundation accounting Their Expositions Ordinances Laws and Institutions to be of far more worth then the Doctrine of the Prophets against which the Prophets oftentimes declaimed but to little purpose What these Commandements are which they esteem more then the word of God our Saviour Christ teacheth us in the new Testament when the Jewes reprehend him that his Disciples walked not according to the tradition of the Elders which were of washing hands cups pots brazen vessels and tables and innumerable fopperies of the same sort by which they make the word of God of none effect but only strive to fulfill the inventions of their Ancestors Now in the last place seeing these their Traditions which Christ pointed out unto us are at this day accurately kept and observed of the Jews seriously also described in their Cannon La. and celesiastical and moral constitutions part of which I have decreed to lay open in the following discourse I think it here convenient to search out the grounds and reasons which might thâ—n and at this day doth induce them to prefer the Ordinances of men before Gods Commondements casting them headlong into the darkness of Superstitlon so blinding their understanding that they cannot possibly find out the trUe meaning of the holy Scripture We read in the Preface of that learned man Rabbi Mosche Mikkotzi called Hakdamah who writ a Book and Exposition upon three hundred and thirteen of Gods Commandements which he entituled Sepher mitzuos gadol that is the great Book of the Commandements in the year of Christ 1236. and published it at Toledo in Spain where the Jewes then had a most flourishing Schoole the Students therein being in number twelve thousands as he witnesseth in his hundred and twelfth Prohibitory precept that the written Law which God delivered unto Moses in Mount Sinai is obscure and difficult first because it contradicts is selfe Secondly because it is imperfect and therefore all things necessary to be known are not there set down wherupon it is needful some certain Exposition should be framed by whose pluÌ„met every one might dive into the genuine sence of the written Law grouÌ„ d theron as a firm foundation That the Law of Moses contradicts it selfe there are many instances We read Exod. 12. 15. For sevean dayes thou shalt eat unleavened bread but Deut. 16. 8. Six dayes thou shalt eat unleavened bread againe vers 9. Seven weeks thou shalt number unto thee which make only forty nine days but in the 23. of Leviticus and the 16. it is read Vnto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall you number fifty dayes In the 16. of Deuteronomy vers 2. it is said Thou shalt sacrifice the Passover unto the Lord of the Flock and of the Heard contrary to this â—xod 12. 5. Your Lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year you shall take out from the sheep or from the Goats Again Deut. 15. 19. All the firstling males that come of thy Heard and of thy Flock thou shalt sanctifie unto the Lord thy God but in the 27. of Leviticus vers 26. The firstling of the Beasts which should be the Lords firstling no man shall
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
with the Godfather of the child because that is a holy place And thus much the Learned among the Hebrews have collected from the Hebrew word Milah which signifies circumcision This word hath four letters every one of which are the Index of a several word Mohel Jered liphne hattibha that is he that circumciseth shall seat himselfe near unto the Ark of the Covenant or Maleach Joschebh liphne Haaron that is the Angel stands before the Gate to wit Elias the Angel of the Covenant standing before the Ark sends up his prayers together with ours into the ears of the Almighty Some of the upright Jews take the little Infant and both before and after his circumcision lay him upon the bolster or cushion of Elias that he may touch him That they accomplish the Priah or denudation of the forepart of the Infants yard with so sharp nails they say that they are moved hereunto by that saying in the Book of Joshua Take unto thee sharp knives for so it is to be translated not knives of stone and circumcise the children of Israel the second time Upon these words the Wise-men among the Jews conclude that those words the second time ought to be understood of the priah which is not other but a second circumcision Hence issueth a most copious question Why they which were born in the Desart were not circumcised for the space of forty years together the answer is that this came not to passe by reason of the stiff necked malignity and hard hearted insolence of their Ancestors for they were men of circumcised hearts but because blustering Boreas had not blown in that Desart within the compass of forty years whose healthfull blasts conduce so much to the letting of bloud that any wound this not travising the terrestrial Globe is accounted perillous Hereupon they have this medicinal Canon In a cloudy day or in that day in which the East-wind blows Circumcision must not be administred nor any vein opened Here it may be objected the Northern wind doth not always blow and yet circumcision is dayly to be exercised This objection is answered in the Talmud that four winds blow every day and that the Northern wind is mixt with every one in particular and for the most part obtains the predominance and for this very reason circumcision may be dayly practised That this wind was husht and still while the Israelites were in the Desart the very nature thereof which is to free the aire from clouds and to be the author of fair weather is an invincible Argument as it is written The wind passeth and purgeth it from the North shall come gold that is to say with whose calm clearness the purity of the most refined gold cannot mannage a comparison If then this wind should have blown in the Desart it had driven away and dissolved the pillar of fire which always accompanied the people of Israel which had been to their great damage Here it is not lawfull for me to expose to the vulgar eye any more of these their quirks If any one be ravished with a desire of a further inquiry let him read Rabbi David Kimchi upon the fore-cited place of Joshuah and the Talmud in the book of affinity and that Chapter which begins Haarel where most accurate disputes exhâ—usted out of the very abysse of wisdome shall present themselves unto his view concerning the cause why circumcision was omitted in the Desart To proceed the casting of the fore-skin into the sand signifies that their seed shall be like the sand upon the sea shore for multitude as it is written I will make they Seed like the sand of the Sea and again Thy Seed shall be as the dust of the earth Secondly they use this Ceremony in remembrance of Balaam who when he saw that all the sand in the Desart was full of the foreskins of the Children of Israel he presently cried out Who can number the dust of Jacob as if he had said who can stand before the holiness and worth of this people all the males whereof not one excepted being circumcised bury their foreskins in such a sandy Sepulchre with what a fore-front shall I curse such an holy Nâ—tion Thirdly it signifies that the Old Serpent which seduced the first Adam in Paradise shall be fed with this fore skin for his bread is the dust of the earth as it is written Thou shalt eat the dust of the earth Now seeing the Serpent is as yet mans daily enemy and hath an incessant greedy desire to satiate his gluttonous paunch with his soule and body thence it comes to pass that these Saint-like Jews feed their enemy the Serpent according to Gods comman dwith the foresaid fore skin as it is written If thine enemy hunger give him meat This bit is so hard of digestion that it so debilitates and weakens the naturall strength of the Serpent that he cannot again â—educe man as once he did If an Insant be sickly they do not circumcise him upon the eighth day but defer it untill the time of his recovery If any Infant dye before the eighth day be come then he is cicumcised in the Church-yard over his grave yet so that no Prayers be said for him It is circumcised to this end that God being intreated would be mercifull unto him and together with others raise him up at the last day In some places it is not lawfull for any one the Godfather only excepted to sit while the child was a circumcising because it is written That all the People stood to the Covenant That for a conclusion of all the Moâ—el is bound to give a blessing upon the Covenant of circumcision holding the circumcision knise in his hand the wise men amongst the Jews demonstrate from that Scriptnre Let the prayses of God be in their mouth and a two edged sword in their hands Thus the fiâ—st Act in the Synagogue is finished now follows the second which is performed after the childes returne to his Fathers house In the mean time that they are busied in the Synagogue the Cooks are with much diligence conversant about their Kitchin affairs the Table is spread and great provision is made to which as hath been formerly recorded only ten men are invited two of which must be a couple of learned Rabbines who rabble out a long Grace and make a kind of a Sermon to which the hearers giving but lean attention in the mean time carouse whole Gobâ—ets of wine one to another It was my chance once to be invited to one of these their feasts commonly celebrated after the administration of the circumcision at which time one of the Rabbines took for his Text those words of Soloman Wisdome is a tree of life to them that lay hold on it Concerning his Sermon I can with out a lie affirm that I never heard â—uch a dry and ridiculous piece of stuff in all my life That they ought to provide such
of all their wants and necessities Now if God who early vouchsafeth his more especial presence in their Synagogue find not any man preventing his expectation then is he angry with his children saying Wherefore when I came was there no man when I called was there none to answer Blessed is he who comming early in the morning entertains discourse with his God How greatly will the Lord love that Servant who imploys all his care that by his negligence his Lord should not abide solitary and destitute of a companion In Masseches Berachos Rabbi Abhiu the son of Rabbi Ada in the name of Rabbi Isaac saith that if he who useth to frequent the Synagogue be but once absent then God instantly upon it proposeth the question Who is among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voyce of his Servant that walketh in darknesse and hath no light and trusteth upon the name of his God Esay 50. 10. The meaning is this that whosoever keeps his bed and comes not into the Synagogue abideth still in darkness In the Porch of their Schoole or Synagogue they have a certaine piece of Iron fastened into the wall against which every one is bound to wipe his shooes if they be unclean and dirty and they urge the authority of Salomon for it saying Keep thy foot when thou goest into the hâ—use of God whosoever useth to wear any pantoffles he ought to put them off at the door of the Synagogue lsst he pollute the same as it is written Loose thy shoes from osf thy foot for the place whereon thon standest is holy ground They ought to enter into the Synagogue with great fear and trembling even as he who is ready to approach the presence of some great King is accustomed to unbare his head and enter the Palace in a bashfull fearfulnesse according to that of the Prophet David Give the Lord the honour due unto his name worship the Lord with holy worship thou dost not read here Behadrath but Bechardath say the Rabbines that signifying comlinesse and ornament this fear and astonishment They being about to enter the Synagogue by the poreh thereof use to repeat some certain sayings hudled up together out of Davids Psalms the custome in it self being very good and laudable if it were seasoned with a judicious attention and servent devotion They may not begin their prayers instantly upon their entrance into the Synagogue but for a space ought to suspend the action in a pious meditation of him with whom they are to converse as also who he is that can see the very secrets of their hearts and hear their prayers for by this means they are possessed with the spirit of reverence and are pricked forward to a serious observation of what is spoken It is written in Masseches Berachos and that upon the Rabbines record that Rabbi Eliezer lying in his bed his Schollers visited him desiring him to show them the way to Eternall Life he willing to satisfie them in their request said unto them whensoever you make your prayers consider before whom you stand for by so doing you shall become heirs of life everlasting Every one of the Jews is bound to casâ—â—omething into the treasury though it be but a mite as it is written I will see thy face sin â—ustice where by Justice is understood Alms deeds which beareth witnesse thereunto In this theâ— fixt devotion of mind they are wont to bow themselves towards the 〈◊〉 in which the boâ—k of the Law is keâ—t saying How goodly are thy 〈◊〉 O Jacâ—b and thy Tabernacle O Israel In the multitude of thy 〈◊〉 I will enter into thine holy Temple Lord 〈◊〉 have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honour dwelleth and many moe such like sayings out of the Psalms of David These things premised in way of a proeme at last they begin their devotions accordingly as they are appointed in their book of Common-prayer and because the Petitions are very many they run them over by a cursory reading of them in their books although some be ignorant of Letters and cannot read at all yet it is his duty to be frequent in the Synagogue without any intermission diligently attending what is said by others and saying Amen at the closure of every prayer That we may the better understand what manner of prayers they use I will translate some of their prayers out of the Hebrew into Latine and withall explain them The first prayer they use begins thus Adon Olam ascher melech c. running all in rythme as all others of theirs do and is sung or read by them in a bouncing tone the form of which prayer followeth O Lord of the world who had rule and dominion before any thing now created was created who was called a King at the instant of their Creation according to his good pleasure and shall so remain after their return into their prime nothing to whom be given all honour and fear He was from everlasting and shall alwayes abide in his glory he is one alone and besides him there is no other who may be compared or be likened unto him by this reason they deny the Deity of the Son and repute him as a common simple man He as he is without beginning so he is without end In his hand is strength and power he is my God my protectour and redeemer by this saying they deride the belief of us Christians who do place our Confidence in a Mediatour who himself was subject to the stroke of death He is a stony rock unto me in my necessity and in the time of my sorrow he is my banner and my refuge he is the portion of mine inhâ—ritance even in that day wberein I implore his aid and assistance into his hands I commend my spirit whether I sleep or wake he is present with me so that I need not be afraid of any thing This prayer being ended then follow in their order an hundred more which are commonly short and pithy and are therefore twice repeated every day the reason whereof shall be given hereafter The first blessing prayer or thanksgiving is about the washing of their hands as was formerly declared and that because if any forget to say it in the morning when he is washing his hands he is injoyned to say it before the whole Congregation In the next place they have a thanksgiving though shore and succinct for the wonderfull Creation of man and especially that God created him full of holes and pores one whereof being stopped sudden death necessarily follows thereupon Then they make their Confession concerning the Resurrection of the dead giving thanks for the gracious supply of all their wants saying Blessed be thou O Lord King of the World who hast given understanding to the Cock so that he knows how to distinguish day from night and night from day so that he never fails to rouse up the Jew before day at what time
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
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
by them blessed and consecrated At length thanks being given the cups are filled the fourth time and the good man of the house taking his cup into his hands saith poure out thy wrath upon the Gentiles and upon the Kingdomes that have not knowne thy name poure out thine indignation upon them and let thy wrathfull displeasure take hold on them In the mean time one running to the doore unlocks it and sets it open thereby willing to shew their great security In this saying they curse all people which are not of Israel more especially the Christians hoping that Elias will come that very night and declare unto them the comming of their Saviour and deliverer the Messias as they also brag and boast in that prayer called Azrob nissim their reason is because all those famous deliverances so full of wonder which God wrought for the Patriarches Prophets and people of Israel hapned as upon this night They pray therefore that God would come againe and deliver them out of this their calamity and punish the Christians in the same manner that he did the Egyptians Hence it comes to pâ—sse that so soone as the gates are opened and the execeration is pronounced one of the houshold invested with a white linnen garment runs into the nurâ—ery that the infants may thinke that Elias is come indeed and is about to take vengean e on the Christians For a conclusion of all the Master of the family saies certaine table-prayers at the period of the supper which he closeth up in this manner Almighty God build againe thy Temple and that shortly very quickly in these our daies very quickly now build againe and that shortly thy holy Temple Omercifull God O great God O bountifull God O thou God that art highly exalted O beautifull God O sweet God O vertuous God O God of the Jewes now build up thy Temple very quickly and with great expedition in these our dayes very quickly very quickly now build up now build up now build up now build now build up thy Temple quickly O strong and powerfull God living God mighty God O God worthy of all honour O God of meeknesse O eternall God a God that art to be feared O God of comelinesse God of majesty God of infinite riches God of surpassing beauty O faithfull God now build up thy Temple shortly very quickly very quickly in these our daies shortly very quickly now build up now build up now build up now build up now build up thy Temple speedily The Orizons ended they betake themselves to rest and sleep in great security for they perswade themselves that this night neither man nor devil can approach to doe them any hurt This night is called in the second book of Moses and the 12 Chapter Lel Schemarim the night of observation or preservation Hereup on their minds being fraughted with such a conceit they abandon feare leave open their gates and doors all the night over to give an entrance to Elias the Prophet who as they assure themselves will come and deliver them out of this their misery Thus the poor blirdfolded Jewes trouble and vex themselves with this their vaine pompe and pompous vanity for two nights together instead of that paschall lambe which they ought to have eaten using no other ceremonies then Moses in the institution thereof hath described It being the position of their Rabbines that it was not required at their hands after the destruction of their City and Temple to Kill and eat the paschall lambe according to the ceremonial prescription of Meses and that they are not tyed to observe these or any others by him enjoined unlesse they were in the promised land of Canaan which land alone is to be accounted pure and holy all others defiled and profane Now from these premises every one may infer thus much that seeing the Jewes have not srom that time wherein the true paschall lambe Christ Jesus was offered eaten the posseover in any place according to the right prescription and also seeing the Jewes at this day so journing in Jerusalem and the land of Canaan do not eat the paschall lamb in the manner that they ought neither doe they offer any sacrifice it must necessarily follow that there is some other cause why their sacrifices are ceased and all other their Mosaicall Rites and Ceremonies are abrogated which certainly they might have found out in the space of 1631 yeares had they not been smitten with blindnesse from above So that now we may say with the Prophet David This their may uttereth foolishnesse yet their posterity delight in their talke But my people would not hear my voice and Israel would have none of me so I gave them up to their owne hearts lusts and they have walked in their counsels The Rabbines establish this their opinion out of the words following Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passeover unto the Lord thy God of the flocke and the herd in the place which the Lord shall choose to place his name there Now seeing God enjoins them according to their ordinary glosse that they should not celebrate this Feast in any other place but in the promised land they doe inferre that now being dispersed among the Nations they are not lyable to the observation of the same But the true sence of the words is this That when God had put a period to Israels captivity and brought them into the land of promise the land of Canaan and having given unto them a setled kind of regiment a City and a Temple in which it pleased him to place his name then they should repaire to Jerusalem to eate the pasâ—hall lambe for the better preservation of the unity of faith among them as to the Metropolis and chiefe City of Israel But when the scepter was in a manner taken â—rom them by reason of inâ—essâ—nt wâ—â—rs and tumults so that they could not come unto Jerusalem then did every family kill and eate the passeover in their owne gates as it is recorded in the second book of Kings And so soon as they were delivered out of these their troubles they celebrated the said Feast againe in the place appointed with great solemnity and rejoicing as good Josial is recorded to have done in the sore-cited place Now that for the space of 1631 yeares they could not kill nor eat the paschall lambeâ— right none must seeke for another cause then that of the departure of the Scepter from Juda the desolation of Jerusalem and their long continued exile For why did not Jerusalem remain unto this day why is not the Temple built againe The sacrifices and ceremonies delivered by Moses why are they not re-established The Jewes cannot see the reason hereof because Moses his vaile is as yet before their eies It was formerly mentioned that the Jewes at the supper of the paschall Lambe use to carouse foure cups of wine two before supper two after which foure consecrated cups every one
extinguished for it is a hainous wickednesse to cut off that part of the candle with a knife which he would have saved A Jew is not permitted to invite any Christian upon any Festivall by reason he might be necessitated to boile and seeth more then ordinary or to undertake some other labour which may dishonour the day by a profanation If a Christian come by chance then it is good manners and also relisheth of hospitality for the Jew to invite him It is not lawfull to fast upon a Feasting day both to avoid evill dreams as also by reason of the command Thou shalt be merry in thy Feasts and it is very meet it should be so which cannot bee done with an empty stomack for musick in the guts makes the heart merry contrariwise and for the foresaid reason a man may fast upon the Sabbath for the Sabbath is stiled by the name of Oneg which signifies a delight and if he fast thereupon it is delightfull unto him seeing hereby he shall not bee cumbered with fearfull dreames but his heart shall overflow with joy and gladnesse It is also lawfull to weep upon the Sabbath even to the satiating of the appetite which is prohibited upon any Festivall for then his spleen ought to overflow with laughter which will not admit of teares for a joint companion If any stuffe a hen or capon and sew up the place with a needle he may burne off but not cut the thread also provided that hee thread the needle the day before The platters which are used for breakfast may not be washed for to serve at supper but clean ones are to be taken It is not permitted to hunt hauke or fish yea although a Christian have caught them and offer them in sale unto a Jew he may not lawfully eate thereof so long as the Feast endures but as for hens and geese and others which are fatted at home they may lawfully kill and eat them There is also no small controversie amongst them whether a man may eate a new laid egge as also fruites plucked from the tree and herbes rooted out of the earth upon the day of Feast Furthermore concerning the killing of beasts cleaving of wood making a fire tinding of the same boiling baking miâ—king of kine and such like of which there is a peculiar tract extant in the Talmud called Betza or a disputation about the eating of eggs There are divers opinions concerning the question The Schoole or Sect of Schammai affirmeth that it is lawfull to eat an egg laid upon the day of the Festivall Hillell avouchâ—th the contrary which hath caused many a jarring dispute among the Rabbines All which are decided in the book called Orach chajim At eventide they returne into the Synagogue for to pray which they doe with so great hast as though they were following their enemies in flight the reason is because they are to boile their meat after evening prayer which they are to eat at supper The day following they celebrate with the same pompe and solemnity that they did the former because then they are uncertaine which is the first day of the new moon in March and consequently which is the fourteenth thereof The celebration therefore of the Feast of the Passeover holds for the space of two daies together that they may not commit an error in the keeping thereof If any one chance in these two daies to finde any leaven in his house he must cover it with a dish or platter and the day following to burn it If any have ducks hens geese or doves about his house he must cast the corne wherewith hee feeds them in a wet place for if some should be left and it should chance to encrease hee is held guilty of sowing graine upon the Sabbath day Next after these in order follow four other daies which are only halfe holy daies and are called by the name of common-Festivals upon which they may do some workes but not all which is also much disputed and the question stated in Orach chajim as for instance It is lawfull to do those things upon this day which being undone are subject to perish and also some dammage may follow thereupon as the milking of kine and such like It is permitted to cut the haire of a young man which is denied to an old one He that hath but one shirt may wash it so that he doe it in private and the mother may also wash the childrens clouts to smooth their linnen and collars â—o make cleane their shooes to sharp their knives to write a letter so that he write the lines crooked and many other works he may lawfully undergoe so that the manner of doing may be somewhat singular that a difference may bee put between the labours of the weeke and the Festivall Amongst other things many have allowed the paring of nailes as upon these daies but the most religious among them seeing it to be a matter of great difficulty have onely permitted women which are to purge themselves by washing from their uncleannesse to practise it for they are bound upon the day of their purification to cut the nailes of their hands and feet lest some impure thing might lurke under them The seventh day of the Festivall is holy according to the Law of Moses wherein it is written The first day shall bee holy unto you in it you shall doe no manner of worke except that which every man must eate that onely may be done of you Upon this day they repaire to the Synagogue to offer up their morning and evening sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving Taking the booke of the Law in a pompous manner and putting the same into the Arke againe boasting thereof in a wonderfull manner and because they are uncertaine which is the seventh day therefore they hallow with an equall celebration the seventh and eighth which time expired they bring againe leavened bread into their houses that God may see that they obey his commandements and stretch out the Feast no longer then he hath enjoned After this the men must fast for three daies two Mundaies and one Thursday That if any one have drunke too much in the time of the Feast or have any other way profaned it he may doe pennance for the fact For thirty daies after the passeover the Jewes carry foule weather in their face are very sorrowfull make no marriages neither cutting their haire nor going into any bath And that for the sake of Akibha an excellent and learned Rabbine who had 24 thousand schollars who all dyed beeween Easter and Pentecost because one emulated and envied despised backbited detracted another not any way exhibiting those debts of love and honour to the paiment of which they are lyable All the foresaid persons dyed in the night time and were buried by the women for which cause they cease from labour at Sunne set and hallow the night following Upon the thirty third day after the passeover the Jewes have a great
solemnity cut their beards bath themselves feast and make merry because the daies of mourning for Akibha ' s schollers are now ended So much concerning the Feast of the passover I conclude all with the saying of Isaiah They have not known nor understood for he hath shut their eles that they cannot see and their hearts that they cannot understand Therefore with my Saviour I say let them alone They be blind leaders of the blind and if the blinde lead the blinde both shall fall into the ditch CHAP. XV. Of their Pentecost THE next Feast of the Jewes which is also one of their chiefest is that which Moses cals Chag Schebhnos the Feast of weeks because before the celebration thereof they are to number seven weeks from the passeover which containe 49 daies so that they held the Feast of Pentecost alwaies upon the fiftieth day after the passeover according to the injunction of Moses saying Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee begin to number the seven weekes from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corne And thou shalt keep the feast of weekes unto the Lord thy God with atribute of a free-will offering of thy hand which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God thou and thy sonne and thy daughter thy man-servant and thy maid-servant and the Levite that is within thy gates and the stranger and the fatherlesse and the widdow that is among you in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to place his name there It is also called the Feast of harvest because harvest begins about the time of the celebration hereof as also the Feast of the first fruits because at this Feast they offered their first fruites unto the Lord in signe of thankfulnesse as we may read in the fourth book of Moses In the New Testament it is called Pentecost as in the acts of the Apostles and other places Their computation of the time is very accurate They begin to reckon from the second night of the Feast of the Passeover when the stars begin to appear saying this prayer Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world who hast sanctified us by thy commandements and hast commanded us to count the daies between the Passeover and beginning of harvest of which this is the first holding on untill they come to the seventh day when they say seven daies are gone which make up a weeke at the end of their prayer see upon the eighth day now a weeke and one day is past and so hold on in the same manner untill the thirty nine daies be fully expired that is to say untill they come to Whitson Eve While their account is in making they must stand according to the injunction of the Rabbines The time of the Feast being come and they not able to observe it according to the prescript of the Law therefore every day they lift up their hands unto God that he would vouchsafe to build up Jerusalem and restore their Temple as at the first promising unto God that upon the grant hereof they will duely celebrate this Festivall and all other using all the sacrifices and ceremonies required as necessary and prescribed in the Law of Moses That they should take such an exact account of the number of these daies or the Feast of seven weeks or harvest according as they write was the command of God himselfe lest his children should forget this Feast and so neglect the payment of their first sruits to God at Jerusalem which might easily come to passe seeing while they were yet in their owne land about or in the time of the celebration of this Festivall every one was busied about his rurall affaires and compelled to looke about his harvest businesse This Feast of weekes is by them compared to a certaine King who comming into a City where some Prince or Noble Peere is fettered in the prison-house entreats the Magistrate for his release which is granted accordingly so many weeks being past and gone And moreover hath this added unto his liberty that this time being past he will also give him his daughter in marriage Then the Captaine begins to reckon every houre day and week which the King hath designed unto him So God dealt with the Israelites while they were yet in bondage to the Egyptians saying unto them I will bring you out of Egypt with a stretched out arme therefore you shall number uunto your selves seven weeks aster the Feast of the Passeover which time being fully past I will give you my holy daughter the Law to wife But from which the Jewes have now gone a whoring and are become most vile adulterers as Moses and the rest of the Prophets complaine The Jewish women are not bound to this computation as also they are not to many other precepts to which the men are lyable Upon the evening of this Festivall it is not lawfull for any man to use phlebotomy for they write in their Minhagin or Talmud that on the eve of this Feast in time past there blowed a certaine evill and pestilent winde which they call Tabhoach which signifies a robber or butcher which had destroied all the children of Israel had they not been willing to have received the Law which God was about to deliver unto them the day following They keep this Feast for two daies together by reason of the same doubt which was frmerly inserted in their minds about the celebration of the Passeover In the celebration hereof they use not many ceremonies because it is not lawfull for them to sacrifice They take the book of the Law twice our of the Arke calling out five men who reade some certaine Chapters and Sections of the Law the contents whereof are concerning the sacrifices and other rites which were in use with their Ancestours in the time of this Festivall Furthermore they straw their pavements and floores of their houses streets and Synag ogues with rushes in remembrance of the Law which was given as upon this day Sticking also every corner of the house with green houghes enriching their browes with crowns of ivy hereby signifying that all the places about mount Sinai were greene when the Law was given Moreover they eat many dishes made with milke as custards and fritters or such like either baked or fryed and that because the Law upon the day when it was given was as white pure and sweet as any milk Among the rest they make one principall wafer or junket deep and thick with seven severall partitions calling it the custard or junket of mount Sinai This same is to put them in remembrance of the seventh heaven into which the Lord ascended from mount Sinai Lastly every one is bound to have his table well furnished with platters â—raught with delicate bits of meat and his goblets overflowing with the choisest wine
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
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 religious who have done as much good as evil Those who are perfectly just have their names presently registred in the book of life but they who are extremely wicked have their names written in the book of death Those of the middle sort are deferred and put off untill the day of reconciliation which is the tenth day after the celebration of the feast of the new year If they truly and sincerely repent them of their sins in the mean time so that their good deeds exceed their bad ones then it goes well with them but if on the contrary their evil deeds be more in number then they are presently put in the catalogue of the reprobate and damned As it is written Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written among the just By the blotting out of the book understanding the book of the wicked and by the word life or living the book of the just and by the words Let them not be written among the just the book of those who are indifferently honest Hence is also that of Ralig bbi Nalig chman the son of Isaac upon these words of Moses Now if thou wilt palig rdon their sin thy mercy shall appear But if thou wilt not blot me out of the book which thou hast written In which words Blot out fingers out the book of the wicked Out of thy book the book of the just Which thou hast written the book of them which are indifferently just and godly So far the Talmud 1. Now that God should at this time sit in judgment rather then at any other the reason is grounded upon a certain tradition of the Antients that God created the whole world Adam and placed him in Paradise in the moneth of September therefore it was thought very meet and just that God at the years end should require of man an account of his life and see how he hath carried himself for the space of the year past and so reward every one according to his works Which he paies unto every one in the year following in this manner Sins are of divers sorts some God punishes in this world some also in the life to come so also good works some whereof are recompenced here some hereafter Now if a man for the most part doe nothing els but sin all the year long polluting his soul with the horrid filth of wickedness yet doing some few good deeds the sum of all is presented before Gods tribunal upon new-years day 1. Then God takes the scales and puts his good deeds in one end and his bad deeds in another If it seem good then to the Judge of all men to reward the foresaid man for the good he hath found in him in this present world it cometh to pass that he is called a just man and hath this happy sentence pronounced upon him in this vale of misery that he shall have a name in the book of life live for the next year become rich and shall be advanced to great honours 1. In like manner if an honest and just man who every day makes a conscience of his wayes and lives according to the law all the year through offend and commit some gross enormities for which God is pleased to punish him in this world then God calls him a wicked and unjust liver and pronounceth sentence against him for evil and not for good puts his name into the book of the dead thereby giving him notice that he shall either die or become poor or be troubled with some dangerous disease the year following and therefore although a man may enjoy the happiness of Saints in the world to come yet may he be called with injustice in this seeing he is here punished for his offences even as the reprobate And on the contrary one here accounted just and holy may be ordained to damnation because God gives him the reward of his workes in this present world And therefore no man ought to wonder or account it a strange thing that the godly suffer affliction and all manner of distress in this present life when on the contrary the wicked lives as he list gives rest unto his soule enjoyes pleasure and is without the gunshot of sorrow and vexation yet at the day of death the case is altered for he that was here so gay and gallant must goe into everlasting fire and the other so miserable into enternal bliss God then paying unto them the due reward of their labours And this is the very reason why the Germara affirms that the three foresaid books are opened upon new-years day Furthermore it often falls out that one good work blots out a number of transgressions and one sin abolisheth many good works both which are in the power of God If the sinner whose name is put into the book of death repent him of his wayes from the bottom of his heart and continue in this course unto the day of reconciliation being the tenth of the new-year he may happily moue God to reverse the sentence pronounced against him and to transferr him into the book of life Even as the godly in the same space angering his Maker by the commission of some hainous offence may move him to blot his name out of the book of life and to write it among the dead Thus the blindfolded Jews write speak and are conceited of the Almighties rule and government making him a Judge of that stampe and quality which they desire him to be of far contrary to the description of the Prophet David who in heavie cheer praying unto God for the forgiveness of his sins cries out Enter not into judgment with thy servant O Lord for no man living shall be justified in thy sight And again If thou O Lord marke whalig t is done amiss who is able to abide it Seeing therefore God sits in judgment upon every new-years-day and so severely punisheth the transgressors of his commandements the Rabbines have made it an Ordinance and Statute in Israel that every one should for a moneth before repent of his sins and the evil he hath committed turn from his wicked wayes and begin to lead a new life This therefore the Jews put in execution and upon the first day of Elul or August they fall to a serious account calling all their sins to remembrance and weighing them according to every several circumstance in which they have wickedly transgressed through the whole circuit of the year Whosoever then every day before he eat or drink questions his soule what it hath done and with a diligent scrutinie searches every corner of his heart for some formerly practised wickedness grieving very much and being very heartily sorry for the same he shall upon New-years-day when others are to give an account for their offences receive a plenary absolution And hence it is that the Jews dwelling among the Walloones at this day have a custome to rise every morning of this moneth
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
also at New-years-tide give almes and so much mony to the poor as the sacrificed Cock was worth For in ancient times they were wont to give the Cocks themselves unto the poor and needy which they took in great indignation and abhorred them as a thing abominable and in eating whereof they should swallow down the sins of the rich Therefore the rich men redeem it with money and either rosting or boiling it and feed thereupon with great joy and rejoycing After dinner they goe into some coole well or cistern and wash themselves as they also did at new-years-tide They duck often and dive to the bottome of the water by which actions they thinke themselves to be clean washed and purged from their offences Some in the mean time provide lights which they are to use in the Synagogue the day following The Jews in Germany prepare a light for every one in particular which to be necessary they prove out of the Cabala in this manner The Hebrew word Ner signifying a light or Candle contains the number of two hundred and fifty Now every man hath two hundred forty eight members in his body to which if we had his spirit and soule this number equalizeth the first And by this reason the word Ner signifying a light is to be understood of man man that is to say every man ought to have a several light lamp or candle to himself Now for the women it is not necessary that any lights should be provided for them seeing they have four members according to the Jewish anatomie more then is in man Yet notwithstanding the Jews inhabiting other nations provide lights also for the women not of necessity but for the ornament and grace of their Synagogue They who are very religious have commonly two lights provided one for the soule the other for the body That for the soule being more costly and precious which they call by the name of Neschamah At eventide again they return into the Synagogue ofsering up their evening sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving One goes and salutes another if any have a quarrel or beat any malice to his fellow he craves pardon for his fault and reconciles himself unto him If any have received any hurt he is bound from his very heart to forgive him that hurt him for if he forgive another God will also forgive him his trespasses If he will not at the first time of intreaty forgive him then he that offended him takes three more unto him and craves pardon the second time yea also the third for his offence If this will nothing avail he calls ten men unto him and earnestly intreats the party offended to forgive him If he grant him a pardon well if not well also seeing God is appeased and this his fact shall never rise up in judgment against him This custome of asking forgiveness is very necessary because God will not pardon the offences committed against our brother upon the day of reconciliation unless we make an attonement with him If it so chance that the party offended be dead then he who committed the offence against him calls ten men goes unto his grave and saith I have offended against the God of Israel and him that lies buried in this place Every one makes his confession unto his fellow before supper lest in supper time a bone should get into his throat and choak him and so he should die without any confession or acknowledgment of his former sins They make their confession in manner following Two men go into some secret corner of the Synagogue the one of them kneels down turning his face towards the North and his back towards the South the other takes a good leathern whip and gives him thirty nine lashes upon the back He that receives them and confesseth his faults smiting his breast at every several stripe he that playes the beadle and soundly whips his hide repeats these words of the Psalmist He was so merciful that he forgave their misdeeds and destroyed them not yea many a time turned he his wrath away and would not suffer his whole displeasure to arise This verse in the Original consists only of thirteen words which he repeats three times adding a word for every stripe Then he that did so lash the other prostrates himself upon the ground his fellow doing as much for him mutually undergoing this grievous pennance for their offences Yet notwithstanding these subtle foxes love their own flesh so well that they endure but a small deal of pain by such a favourable whipping This kinde of whipping seems to take its original from that act of Moses who enacted that if so the wicked be worthy to be beaten the Judge shall cause him to lie down and to be beaten before his face according to his trespass unto a certain number Forty stripes shall he cause him to have and not past lest if he should exceed and beat him above that with many stripes thy brother should appear despised in thy sight This kinde of punishment was in ancient times political and was in use also among the Christians as it is also at this day for a malefactor to be beaten with rods The Rabbines commenting upon this place affirm that thirty nine stripes only not forty as the law commands are to be inflicted upon the person offending The reason whereof as one of their Rabbines tendered it unto me is that which followeth In old time the whip wherewith the effendâ—r was punished consisted of three cords two of which were shorter then the other the third or mid cord being of such a length that it might easily eacompass the whole body all the three being made of the skin of some yong bullock Now he that lashed the delâ—nquent with this threefold cord gave unto him at one and the same time three several stripes accounting one for every cord So that in thirteen lashes he received the ful number of thirty nine stripes to which if he had added one lash more then had he inflicted two more then Moses required to be given unto him which was no way to be allowed of it was therefore thought good rather to be defective in punishment then exceeding to give only thirty nine stripes instead of forty The true and genuine exposition of this place is to be found in the Talmud which here I will not insert to avoid prolixity This kinde of punishment was inflicted upon the Apostle as he himself witnesseth in his second Epistle to the Corinthians and that without doubt in a more smarting degree then is usual among the Jews at this day Prayers being ended they post home with speed inexpressible Where they finde the table ready spread and furnished by their wives in their absence at which presently they sit down and lustily feed upon the Cocks and Hens which in the morning they offered in sacrifice to God for their sins for in their Minhagin they affirme that it is no less the commandement
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
the eighth day they feed only upon lentiles in signe of sorrow and heaviness but they will neither eat beans nor pease because they have a certain black stroke in their upper parts much like unto a mouth but they eat lentiles and egges also such have no such linâ— upon them neither any representation of a mouth and therefore do best decipher and figure out a man ful of grief and sorrow who sits still and sayes nothing as though he had no mouth at all A most Rabbinical allusion At night they eat but little continually sitting upon the ground if any thing then it must be an egge rosted which they do likewise in signe of sorrow for as an egge is round and in figure circular so is sorrow also running after the manner of a round body now to this man now to that Bed-time being come they lay themselves to rest upon a harder couch then at other times He that formerly used two pillows is now content with one He that formerly used one only casts it away and will not admit of any for soft feather and down-bed they embrace some bone pinching mattress and for sheets of the choisest lawne those which are hurden The fourth fast which is the fast of the seventh moneth is kept upon the third day of September because that good and excellent man Gedaliah which was by Nebuchadnezar set over the remnant of the Jews that were left of the captivity of Babylon was in a miserable and fraudulent manner slain as upon this day as Jeremy the Prophet beareth witness These are the foure general feasts usually kept by the Jews in the dayes of Zachary and also by the dispâ—rsed remnant yearly in these our times Besides these general fasts they have some more particular not kept by the whole Congregation of Israel in general but by every one apart at certain times according as they desire to become holy and religious Thus some of them fast every munday and thursday through the year as that proud Pharisee whereof our Saviour makes mention in the new Testament who bragged and boasted that he fasted twice every week Secondly some use to fast upon the tenth of March for Miriam the Prophetess who died upon this day upon whose departure the fountains in the wilderness did dry up so that the children of Israel wanted water and sinned in murmuring against the Lord yet many of the Rabbines are against this fast that every one ought to abstain from fasting in the moneth of March because therein God wrought their deliverance out of Egypt the remembrance whereof ought to cheer them up to joy and gladness Thirdly they fast for the most part upon the tenth of April because Eli and his sons died upon this day the Arke of the Covenant was taken by the hands of the Philistines and the glory departed from Israel Fourthly many of them fast upon the twenty eighth day of April because Samuel died thereupon They have also diverse other fasts which they keep by reason such wise men and Prophets changed this life for a better upon those dayes whereon they observe and keep them Some fast also upon every evening of the new moone Others so often as they have any fearful and unfortunate dreams He whose father is dead fasts yearly upon the day whereon he departed this life And many such like causes there are for which they abstain from meat at several times When they fast they abstain from all kinds of meat and drink from morning untill the stâ—s appear which were a true and laudable fast indeed if it were performed with a devout heat and minde in the fear of God and refeâ—red to that end which the Scripture prescribes But this kinde of fasting noâ— of the Prophets could never by the hammer of perswasion beat into their hearts and heads It is written in Medrasch rabba in the Chapter vezos habbetachah that ever and anon so soon as Moses saw that God would inflict some punishment upon him he appointed himself a fast making himself a cheese-cake as big as his own body put on sackloth sprinkled ashes on his head and going into the foresaid pie or cheese-cake fasting and praying without intermission did determine not to depart thence untill God had reversed and made void the sentence pronounced against him This fable smels of the Talmud in which it is written that a certain godly and religious Jew called Chon Hammagal did fast after the manner of Moses so often as he desired some great and weighty matter at the hands of God When upon a certain time it had not rained at any time throughout the whole moneth of February and rain was necessary that men might receive the fruits of the earth in due season the foresaid Chon fasted and prayed shutting himself up in such a pie or cake as in close prison and saying O Lord of the world thy childrens eyes are all upon me knowing that I am as dear unto thee as any son can be to a father I swear therefore by thy holy name that I will not goe out hence untill thou have mercy upon thy people Then the Lord sent a gracious rain upon his inheritance Habbacuck the Prophet also practised the like and hereupon he saith I will stand upon my watch tower and set me upon the tower and will look and see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer to him that rebuketh me that is to say I stand in my pie or chees-cake expecting untill thou make me answer how it comes to pass that the wicked do so prolong their life as Rabbi Kimchi comments upon the place So miserable are these poor seduced Jews in this manner deluded and given over to a reprobate sence so that they cannot blush at any thing neither are sensible of any gripes of conscience while they speak so grosly and vainly of God and his word interpret the Scripture according to the fancies of their brain and their own good pleasure This superstition and abuse in fasting had a strong head even in the dayes of the Prophets Whereupon Zachary reproves their false fast and prescribes the true for to the priests and people asking him Shall I weep in the fift moneth and separate my self as I have done these many years He answers in Gods name and saith when you fasted and mourned in the seventh moneth and in the fift even these seventy years did ye fast unto me and do I approve it And when you did eat and when you did drink did you not eat for your selves and drink for your selves should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the ministry of the former Prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity and the cities thereof round about her when the south and the plain was inhabited Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying execute true judgment and shew mercy and compassion every man upon his brother and oppress not
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
Rabbines from a beast called Jaduah a bone of which they held in their teeth in time of prophecy The seventh Doresh El hammethim one who asked counsel of the dead a Necromancer such was the witch of Endor The eighth Shoel makâ—o one who took counsel by his staff what way it fell that way he would go Hos 4. 12. Or measuring his staff by inches I will go I will not go did according to the event The last Roel Baccober Ezek. 21. 21. A diviner by the intrals of Beasts Exod. 15 16. Cholm cap. 3 p. 16. Gen. 12. 6. Rab. Bechoci Gen. 1. Num. 18. 15. Caphtorâ— uperach p. 68. Psal 46. 3. Dan. 7 9 10. Tract Rosch haschanah c. 1. p. 16. Psal 69. 29. Exod. 32. 32. Psal 143. 2. Psal 130. 3. Orach Chaymna 581. Exod. 32. 2. Amos 6. Rosch hasâ—cha c. 1. p. 16. The papists had their praying to Saints from hence Minhagim Dan. 7. 10. Taame mitznos pag. 36. Rescha chochma magnum in Schaar par â—eschubha cap. 3 nu 163. Jesa 59. 2. 4. 5. Levit. 23. 24. Orach chaijm num 583. Deut. 8. 13. Psal. 89. 16. Mich. 7. 19. Levit. 16. Mich. 2. 11. Soph. 3. 4. Orach chajim num 602. Psal. 107. 17 18 19 20 21 22. Joâ— 33. 34 35 Levit. 16 17. Isa. 1. 18. * Gehher a man from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 invaluit to prevail he haâ—h this name from his might and strength Psal. 22. 1. a Neschamah amma hereby is noted only the reasonable soule according to Aben Ezra who derives as though iâ— were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 min haâ—shamajim from heaven I think rather from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nashah to lift up and Shamajim signifying heavens because it is or alwayes ought thither to be lifted up It is distinguished from Ruach and Nephesh the Synonyma's of it in this manner by Aben Ezra Neschamah est vis sensibilis rationalis habet locum in cerebro 2. Ruach spiritus habet sedem in corde quod est origo ritus complectiturque vim irascibilem 3. Nephesh est vis concupiscibilis situm habet in jecore Orach chajim nu 606. Psal 78. 38. Deut. 23 2 3. This was in use in S. Pauls dayes who saith that he received forty stripes save one 2 Cor. 11. The Jewish reason is to be approved of Rabbi Bechaim Deut. 25. 2. Psal 1. 2 3 4. Levit. 23. 27 28 29 30 31. Orach chajim nu 612. A very papistical indulgence Cant. 2. 9. Chaptor upherach p. 71 Exod 23. 8. Isa. 58. 1 2 3 4 5. Zach. 6. 5. Prov. 6. 23. Prov. 3. 18. Orach chajim uu 670. Esther 3. Esther 8. Tract Mâ—gilah Orach chajim nu 690. Sect. 16. Orach chajim num 615. De rit Jud p. 61. zach 8. 19. The first fast The second fast The third fast Hos. 5. 7. Jer. 2. 24. The fourth fast Ier. 40. 41. Particular fasts 2. 3. 4. Reschis chochma parvum p. 10. Tanais p. 23. Hab. 2. Rabbi Solomon Jarchi Zachi 7. Exod. 23. 19. Num. 31. 23. Tract 1. Elim c. 5. p. 75. Exod 22. 31. Gen. 24. 64. Abel signifies vanity shewing the righteousnesse of man to be nothing else hence that excellent Elogie Adam Cain Abel the earth hath possessed vanity The names of the three first men making it up Gen. 32. The Jews of ancient dayes had two sorts of wives the one called â—ashim ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which according to Rabbi Juda which were married with a Bill of contract or solemn espousals whose children were heirs unto their fathers lands 〈◊〉 goods The others called Pelagshim Coâ—â—â—ines or half-wives not lawful wives or 〈◊〉 of the houâ—e neither were their children heirs unto their fathers goods derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Palag to divide and Ishaâ— a wife a divided or half wife The fâ—â—â—r sort are derived either by the figure Apâ—â—â—sis from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anashim by taking away the first and capital letter Aleph 〈◊〉 that the Man is the Womans 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sâ—duxiâ— to seduce bâ—â—â—se she deceived Adam or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to forget either that women 〈…〉 memory or rather that their fathers house in them is as it were extinct and quite forgotten Gen 2. 22. Tract Medah c. 5. p. 45. Gen 2. 22. Signifying that mankind was perfect when the woman was created which before was like an unperfect building Or rather because the women build their husbands an house as Rachel and Leah built the hous of Israel Ruth the last b Chuppah a cover arbor or such like from the Hebrew root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to cover or hide Jer. 31. 22. Gen. 1. 28. Psal. 147. 14 Psal. 45. 10 Tallith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cloak or hairy garment Gen. 25. Rabbi Solomon saith that it is a litle cloak peculiar to the Jews which they used in time of prayer from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obtegere to hide or cover Ruth 3. 9. Ezek. 16. 8. Psal 2. 11. The dowry bill Matth. 6. 19. Tract Gittin The bill of divorce In the Latine Copy the bill was imperfect I have therefore corrected it according to that in Moses Koâ—sinsos f. 133. a Matth. 22. The Sadduces were a certain Sect among the Jews they had their name either from Sedek Justice because they justified themselves before God or from Sadoc the first Author of the Heresie who lived under Antigonus Socheus who succeeded Simeon the just They rejected the Propheâ—s and all other books of Scripture save the five books of Moses They rejected traditions they denied a reward for good works and punishment for evil the resurrection of the body Angels and Spirits Fate and Destinie ascribing all to mans Free-will and affirming the soul to be annihilated after it departs the body Drusius de trib Sect. cap. 8. lib. 3. From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 colligere From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 colligere * The Falling-sickness from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cadere Hilluc from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go or walk because the Plague is a very walking disease Lib Chasidim num 167. Reschis Chochma P 22. From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 occidere Gen. 50. 10. Gen. 37. 34. b Justitia juditij a just judgment Esa 60. 14. Isa 25. 8. Psal 90. 17. Num. 20. 1 2. Tract Aboda Zara c. 8. Ezek. 12. 7. Num. 〈◊〉 2. a The wounds of the Sepulcher The Jews twofold Messias Luk. 2. 25. Ib. v. 38. Rom. 11. 5. Num. 2. 4. 17 18. Schebet Jehndah the tribe of Judah A historical book of the many afflictions martyrdoms of the Iews as also of their disputes with the Christians in Spain and Italy It was printed at Crncovia in Germany An. d. 1591. Sanhedrin c. 11. p. 97. Cant. 7.5 Sanhedrin c. 11. p. 98. Esay 53. 3. The miracles before Christs coming Abkas rochel pulvis aromatarius the author Rimchar a little book in octavo it hath 3 parts the first of the miracles before the coming of the Messias two of the soule and the state of it after this life The third of Moses his tradition about Mount Sinai mans creation c. It was printed at Venice anno Dom. 1597. Hos. 3. 4. Jascibhah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Synagogue from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sit or rest The second miracle Mal. 4. 2. Num. 24. 23. The third mirale Dan. 12. 3. Joel 2. 30. The fourth miracle Hos 14. 5. The fifth miracle Esa 24. 22. Jon. 2. 8. The sixth mimiracle Esa 59. 16. Jer. 3. 14. The Seventh miracle Exod. 20. The coming of Michael Dan. 12. 1. Ezek. 20. 38. Dan. 12. 10. Hos 2. 14. Dan. 11. 42. Dan. 11. 45. The eighth miracle Jsa 27. 13. Zech. 9. 14. Ezech. 38. 22. Obad. 18. The ninth miracle 1. never The tenth miracle Micah 2. 13. Jsa 41. 18. Jsa 49. 10. The Jews ten fould comfort against the foresaid signes Consol 1. Zach. 9. 9. The 2. Cons Esa 35. 6. The 3. Cons The 4. Cons The 5. Cons Zeph. 3. 9. The 6. Cons Ezek. 25. 14. The 7. Cons Jsa 33. 24. The 8. Cons Jsa 65. 22. See Reschaim in the Talmud c. 6. p. 68. Ninth Cons Isa 40. 5. Tenth Cons Ezek. 36. 26. The feast which the Messias shall make unto the Jews at his coming The first dish Behemoth Job 4. 10. a Rabbi Sal Jarchi Rabhuenaki The 2. dish Leviathan Babha Basra c. 5. p. 74. Jsa 27 1. Job 40. 16. 19 The third dish Barinchue Bechoros c ult p. 57. The Crow Babha basra c. 5. p. 72. The great bird ziz Talmud in the same place The great Lion Cholin cap. 3. p. 59. The wine for the feast Esa 27. 2. 3. Psal 75. 9. The sports where with the Messias will delight the Jews Job 40. 20. Psal 104. 26. Psal 69. 32. Job 40 14. 15. Jsa 27. 1 Esa 25. 6. Job 41. 6. The marriage of the Messias ps 45. 10. Schegal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifieth the wife of a King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shagal which is to exercise the very act of venery Isa 53. 10. The manner of life the Jews shall have under their Messias The first benefit Jsa 60 10 11. 12. Jsa 61. 5. 6. The 2 benefit Jsa 65. 17. Psal. 92. 14 15 The 3 Benefit Hos 14. 8. Isay 62. 8 9. The 4 Benefit Esay 11. 17. The 5 Benefit Isay 2 4. Jer. 8. Matth. 15. 5. Titus 1. Deut. 28.