these sonnes of strangers which came to the house of God but the Gentiles who serving Idols were meer strangers to God they their Princes and their Kings of whom God said They shall walk in the light of his holy house and we thrust out shall remain in darknesse and we indeed are in darknesse and have beene fearfully benighted a thousand years and upward Still that Prophet of that people Behold thou shalt call a Nation that thou knowest not and Nations that knew not thee shall runne unto thee Now our eyes de facto do testifie it a thousand years and more have worne out themselves since the Christ came that was sent according to the Law given to us And the Gentiles which knew not the Law they came to him and he has given them a new a pure an holy law Besides this in the five and fortieth Chapter They agreed together and their Kings were gathered together in the beliefe of God I much fear O Master that is meant of them Assemble your selves come and draw near ye that are escaped of the Nations and I am found of them that sought me not Jeremie speaks of them The Nations shall be gathered to the Name of the Lord in his holy House nor shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evill heart The same Prophet To thee shall all the Gentiles come from the utmost ends of the earth saying Our fathers have inherited iniquitie and lies Zephanie the Prophet follows this stream The Gentiles shall all call on the name of the Lord and shall serve him with one shoulder every man from his place and all the Isles of the Nations Zacharie brings his part to this truth Sing and rejoyce O daughter of Zion lo I come and will dwell in the midst of thee saith the Lord and many Nations shall be joyned to the Lord. Again in the 8. Chapter Thus saith the Lord of Hosts many nations shall come from many places and every man shall say to his neighbour Let us go and seek the Lord our God for good All these things O Master are now fulfilled and the effects of them abide plainly before our eyes you see people and languages brought home to God and studying the Law all the Prophets and Book of Psalmes to which they were strangers and have left their Idols to imbrace the Truth None of them are brought to this belief by the hand of Moses or Aaron or any of our Prophets And since their hearts were turned to beleeve in that Righteous One of whom Habackuk saith Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people with thine Anointed they have utterly abdicted and abandoned all their Idols no Idolatry since that has remained amongst them CHAP. XVII Of the quickning and giving life to Gentiles and slaying the Jews MY fears O Master beat as continually as my Pulse and in this I tremble to think that the powerfull and glorious God as with one hand hee gives life to the Gentiles by faith so with the other hand he slayes us in our incredultie Doth not Esay indigitate and point out this Because when I called ye did not answer when I spake ye did not hear therefore thus saith the Lord God Behold my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry behold my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall crie for sorrow of heart and howle for vexation of spirit and God shall slay thee O Israel and shall call his servants by another name in which he shall blesse them who is blessed upon the earth Amen for in truth And alas we see how exceedingly they are blessed upon the earth by God who have received this new name but for us we flie like dispersed dust before the winde of Gods wrath scattered through the four quarters of the world in a sad Captivitie To this day a thousand years have â—unne over us and trod with heavy feet upon our heads In us expressely appears the deep impressions of the footsteps of Gods wrath not for chastisement onely and instruction â—ut to our destruction This is that slaying which the Lord threatned that he would slay Israel and the nations which he would keepe â—live whom he calls his servants shall receive that good name he hath promised but yet â—he order is thus wee must first lose our â—ame and then they shall receive their new â—ame The funerals of our name must make 〈◊〉 way for the resurrection of theirs as the veâ—y order of Esay's words declare And as for â—â—e hunger and thirst the Lord threatens wee shall be vexed withall it is not that common â—amine of bread and thirst of water but that â—orse sterility and spirituall barrennesse which torments the souls and hearts of us a â—amine of the Word of God as Amos makes appear in his eight Chapter But you my Master Plough with a more skilfull Heifer in these mysteries than I and better understand these things However in all these storms of wrath and what ever falls on us we belong unto God CHAP. XVIII How the Gentiles quickned by faith have purâ— observances in their new Law I Cannot but fear O Master that the Gentiles are quickned and brought to life The Annuall circlings of the Sunne have made up a thousand years from the time that Jesus dyed at Jerusalem and we know there was noâ— good thing at all to be found among the Gentiles before they came to beleeve in God iâ— Christ and the Apostles so as they seemed to be the Prophet Habackuks fishes and creeping things that had no Ruler But now these Gentiles being purified by faith are ruled by fastings and other observances of their new Law yea they want nothing pertaining to cleannesse and purity so much spoken of in the old Law You see how in every language and place whether you look to the Orientall or Occidentall utmost Fringes of the world wide garment that the Gentiles confesse the Name of the Lord. Neither do they beleeve in him through Moses or any of the Prophets although they bee studious in the Law and the Propheticall Writings but God hath called them to himself another way even by the Disciples of that Righteous One who went forth with God for the salvation of his people as the blessed and glorious God hath foretold by the mouth of the Prophet Habackuk yea those very Disciples of his who by another name are known among them being called Apostles they were Children that sprung out of the same Root with us and were the sons of the sons of Israel Ah how my poor heart is Palsied through fear when it judges that these same Apostles are they of whom God means in Davids Psalm when he saith Their sound is gone out into all the earth and their words into the ends of the world The Prophets words carry an expresse demonstration in
which there were many as Abarbanel bar Abba ben Abraham c. It was expedient to have writ something about these things of persons and place lest it should be judged under the crime of negligence to let all slip without mentioning either head or feet of the body of the Translation and Book of which we were to give an account For the matter of the Book it deplores the Jews miserie their being banished and hated where ever they come and fathers all upon their crueltie in Crucifying Christ and their unbelief still denying to receive him and the Gospell Now if any ask what is their miserie and what is the cause I shall unfold it First there is the judgement of God upon them they prayed Christs blood might bee upon them and upon their Children it is so it follows and haunts them where ever they go few States and Kingdoms entertain them and where they are entertained they are kept under and made to endure very hard things the State serving their own ends by them In most places they use if Christians to distinguish them from others by place of dwelling by themselves and some distinctive habit as their own Chronologer tels us that at Vepice such a yeer the Jews were commanded to wear a yellow Hat that they might be known from Christians Our Samuel tels enough of this wrath of God that doggs them at the heels all over Now besides this great sinne of murdering Christ once they have other notorious vices that will make any Christian Commonwealth first or last vomit them out unlesse they leave their Jewish pranks Under Constantine they used to set upon those Jews with stones that had left them and turned Christians till the Emperour by Edict caused divers of them to be burnt and withall â—ppointed that if any Christians turned Jews â—hey should be burnt likewise Many of them â—ebelling he caused their ears to be cut off They used by craft and by coyne to buy and get of the consecrated bread which was left at 〈◊〉 Christmas Sacrament of the Lords-Supper â—nd prick it burne it and very basely and scornfully abuse it because they heard Christians call it the body of Christ There are â—wo notable stories of this the one in the reign of the Emperour Iustinian the other in Germany where the Jews for that villanie were â—ome of them burnt and tortured with hott Pincers others banished the Diocesse of the Bishop of Passaw You have the story short in these old Latin verses which as a Chronicle are set up in the Church Anno Milleno quadringen septuageno Octavo sub Vdalrico protoflamine claro Affecit flammâ Majestas Patavjensis Vrbis Judaeos tam tetro crimine mota Per quos heu summj transfixa est hostja Christi Extunc flagranti consumpta atrocius igni Sometimes they were accused for poysoning of Wells and Springs to make an end of Christians sometimes for beggering Christians by excessive Usurie and extortion sometimes for Clipping of Coyne for Magique for cozenage c. But their cursing of Christ and Christians their cursing of Jews that turn Christians their imprisoning of their dearest friends and laying some foul false accusation against them if they smell that they intend to turn Christians makes them oftentimes intolerable some of their Rabbies reading such Lectures as these A Jew may murder or slay a Baptized Jew without sin So much are they bent to shed the blood of Christians that they say a Jew needs no repentance for murdering a Christian and they add to that sinne to make it sweet and delectable that hee who doth it it is as if he had offered a Corban to the Lord. Hereby making the abominable sin an acceptable Sacrifice But beyond all these they have a bloody thirst after the blood of Christians In France and many Kingdomes they have used yearly to steale a Christians Boy and to Crucifie him fastning him to a Crosse giving him Gall and Vinegar and running him in the end thorow with a Spear to rub their memories afresh into sweet thoughts of their Crucifying Christ the more to harden themselves against Christ and to shew their curst hatred to all Christians Thus they incensed Philip of France for such a fact so as their Goods were confiscate being Jews whether guiltie or innocent and some imprisoned others cast out of the Kingdome At Weissenburg in Germany they Crucified a Boy at Verona they did it and at Venice also at Inmestar a place near Antiochia Our diligent Foxe hath given us notice that when England gave Jews harbour they got our English Children and sometimes crucified them in divers places as you may finde in Acts and Monuments and he publishes it withall in his Latin Sermon at the Baptism of a Jew There is an excellent relation if it can be proved to bear its weight with truth to shew the originall of Child-Crucifying among the Jews Cantjpratanus saith he once heard a very learned Jew that in his time was converted to the Faith say that a certain Prophet of theirs when he was at point of death did prophecie of the Jews thus Know ye saith he this for a most certain truth that you can never bee healed of this shamefull punishment wherewith you are so vexed but onely by Christian blood This punishment so shamefull they say is that Jews men as well as females are punished cursu menstruo sanguinis with a very frequent Bloud-fluxe These words saith the converted Jew the Iews did take with a mistake for hereupon to heale themselves they every yeare get the blood of some Christian Childe whom they murder whereas if they had understood aright this sanguine Christiano was Christs blood that they should get which in the Sacrament we receive to the healing and saving of sinners so many of us as are turned to Christ we are presently healed of our Fathers curse But alas they are mistaken indeed to chuse Barabbas a murderer on earth nay to chuse Abaddon the murderer of Hell before Jesus the Heavenly Redeemer and Saviour of the Souls of Sinners both Jews and Gentiles that do beleeve in him A miserable mistake to shed Christian blood by murder rather than to seek Christs blood by faith It was good counsell he gave them and they must be Co-Heires with Sathan of perdition unlesse they get this blood Of Magicall and unlawfull practises they have also beene accused and their names made blacke with that report That the Jews were much addicted to the use of Magique is confessed by R. Elias in his Thisbi It is a custome saith he much taken up by us Jewes in Germany that we make a circle round about in walls of the Chamber where a woman lies in Childbed with Chalk or a coale and write on every wall Adam Heva Chuts Lilith and he relates how on the inner chamber door they write the names of
Lord of Hosts mighty in battell is the Prince of Glory Certain and plain it is O Master that this righteous Lord of Hosts had no battell but in his first comming for in his last comming who shall dare fight with him for when he shall sit on his Seat of judgement and a fire round about him shall flame and burn up his enemies and shall purifie the righteous by fire as it were silver and all this in his last comming then none shall fight against him no place shall there be for any to resist him by battell Of the exaltation of this Righteous One the Prophet Esay speaks Who is that that commeth from Edom with garments dyed red from Bozrah this that is glorious in his apparell And the righteous One thus makes answer I that speak righteousnesse a Defender to salvation mighty to save The Angels then say unto him Why are thy garments red like him that treadeth the Wine-fat He answers them again I have trodden the Winepresse alone and there was not a man with me See here O Master how properly Esay speaks yea I fear the answer of this righteous one much toucheth us and none but us when he saith I have trod them in mine anger and their blood is sprinkled upon my garments and I have stained all my raiment For the day of vengeance is in my heart and the yeer of retribution is come O where have we any hopes in that Righteous One when we see that he complaines of us to the Angels in Heaven and makes knowne to them that he trod the Winepresse alone Whom as it that he trod in his wrath but us who after the Battell in his first comming hath thrown us down and we lie prostrate and trampled under foot now a thousand yeers and still there is a black day of vengeance waits for us in his last comming and a year of retribution is in his heart I would to God O Master when we with murderous hands slew the Prophet Esay wee had laid hands upon this Prophecie also and quite blotted out this fair authoritie out of his Booke that no eye might ever have beheld or read it against us And you may observe that which David cals a Battell The Lord of Hosts mighty in Battell Esay calls a Wineptesse Alas for us O Master we drink that new sweet Wine of which Iacob the Patriarch and Prophet speaks in the Book of the Generation of the Creatures that is Children of Judah He washed his cloathes in the blood of the Grape as it is falne out in us at the first comming of the Messiah that is We washed our garments in his Blood But what shall we wretches do in his last comming when all men shall stand before this man comming to judgement and a furious fire shall be ready to devour them round about him against whom he shall pronounce sentence Then is the time of Battell ceast he shall be no more then trod in the Winepresse then shall there be neither place nor time for repentance all refuge shall then fail onely Justice shall remain that as he was unjustly judged when they found no sinn in him so he shall justly judge all sinners For God saith in the Prophesie of Salomon If the righteous receive judgement where shall be the wicked and the sinner If the righteous scarcely be saved what shall then become of the ungodly CHAP. XIII He more strongly proves the corporall Ascension of Christ FEar as a Furie haunts me O Master and possesses me with this that those Testimonies recited by me out of the Prophets are all as points drawn from the Circumference and meeting all in that Just One as their Center viz. That he was sold for silver as the Prophet Amos avouches That he trod the Winepresse as Esay averrs That he was in battell with our Fathers as David affirms That he was caught as in a Net by our sins as Jeremie alledges That he was wounded in his hands as Zacharie asserts That upon his Vesture they cast Lotts as David assents That he ascended into Heaven as the same Prophet and others with an unanimous testimonie give up Which is not compatible nor can it stand with meer God considered in his Divine Essence and nature for the Deitie has neither Resurrection Exaltation Descension or Session properly Out of what hath been said this must issue with a necessary consequence That this Righteous one is already come to whom all the foresaid things very aptly agree and are fitly accommodated to his corporeall and humane nature which he assumed Now because O Master I know how hardly this enters into thy beliefe as a most improbable paradox that a man should bodily ascend into Heaven ponder these authorities and examples which we meet with in Scripture which underprop and confirm this truth In the first place I rank the Prophet David who saith God hath ascended on high he hath led captivitie captive and given gifts to men Again he speaketh of his Ascension Sing unto God and glorifie his name make way for him that ascendeth from the Western parts the Lord is his name Again David speaks of him in that Psalm which thou hast in thine heart Sing praises to God that ascends above the heaven of heavens to the East After him the Prophet Amos in like manner saith It is the Lord that hath built his Seat on high Of him again the Prophet David God is gone up with a shout the Lord with the sound of a Trumpet Likewise the Prophet Aser in his second Chapter saith I saw a man descending from the midst or heart of the Sea and he came up to heaven But because we want that Prophecie I omit to write many other things which that Prophet hath concerning this And yet wee have that Prophet but he knew not then that he who is Aggaeus in Latine is the same with Aser in the Arabick tongue Moses in his Song saith I lift up my hand to Heaven So Esay Awake or Arise arise O Arm of the Lord. Hannah the Mother of Samuel sings The Lord shall give strength unto his King and exalt the Horn of his Anointed David again The Lord ascended upon the wings of the winde These authorities have I met with in Scripture serving to prove the corporeall Ascension of Christ into heaven Many more there are to this purpose as thou O Master very well knowest Now will I annex some examples out of our Law to follow these Authorities being a thing so convenient for the establishing our belief in the point of Christs bodily ascent into Heaven This in the first place must be taken into consideration that the true and glorious God hath assumed and translated to himself out of the earth many holy men among our forefathers as the Law and Prophets will witnesse and if we doubt not of the ascent of these induced to beleeve it for the sanctitie of the men
them against us that he speaks of them and not of us when he saith There is no Tongue or Language wherein their voyce is not heard and this cannot be taken of our Hebrew Language For what Gentiles are there which obey the precepts of Moses and Aaron seeing they slew the Gentiles put them to flight and drove them from them But these Gentiles at this day are acquainted with Moses and the Prophets they know God they keep their new Law after the prescript form of the Apostles teaching Notwithstanding all this yet we belong to God CHAP. XIX Of choosing the Apostles in place of the Prophets MY soul converseth in the region of fear and I am troubled about that place of Zacharie I will smite the Shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered I fear that was fulfilled when wee smote the Shepherd of those holy Children the Apostles for ever since that time we like miserable sheep run dispersed and stragling thorow the whole world and the Apostles which were our children are risen up in stead of our Prophets This appears as a Noon-tide truth seeing from that time God hath not sent us one Prophet nor given us any Divine notice or heavenly provision by the way of Vision O Master I fear that the Apostles are those Children Ioel meaneth of Your old men shall dreame dreams and your young men shall see visions For a certaintie O Master our Prophets are the Old men that dreamed of the faith of the Gentiles which these young men the Apostles have attained unto and seen it more clearly even in plain Visions Of these Children spoke David the Prophet Come ye Children hearken unto me I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Besides this when God speaks of us â—e doth not name us commonly Children in â—he Plurall number but he stayes in the Singular naming us Israel his first born In another Psalm these young men are called Children Thy Children shall be like Olive Plants â—ound about thy Table Of Israel O Master God spoke by the mouth of Esay The Vineâ—ard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel I â—ooked it should bring forth Grapes and it â—rought forth wilde Grapes therefore I will break down the wall thereof and it shall be troden down Of these aforesaid Children of God by Esay he further saith Iacob shall not now be â—shamed neither shall his face waxe pale But it shall be then when he shall see his children the â—ork of mine hands sanctified before his eyes Now if those Children O Master were sanctified in our sight according to the way of our Law it could not be said of us that we were â—shamed and our Faces Vermilion'd with â—lushes and for that cause we should hide â—hem but rather would it shape for us glory â—nd resplendency of face But hence comes â—his confusion of the faces of Iacobs children â—nd this is the desolation that those Children the work of Gods own hand were sanctified in our sight and yet they have this honour another way than we it comes not as our sanctification by the Law Thus God would give us to understand that our Law is not their Law So much imports he by the mouth of Ieremie In that day they shall not say Our fathers have eaten sowre Grapes and their Childrens teeth are set on edge as if he meant thus The infidelitie of the Jews doth no way hurt the faith of the Apostles nor shall it hurt For this is added for that cause As I live saith the Lord this shall be no more a proverb in Israel And this is observable never any of the Apostles after they had received the faith of Christ did returne backe to imbrace our faith Thus are they free from tasting the bitternesse of our infidelity notwithstanding our teeth are set on edge with the sinnes of our Fathers Further O Master God by Esay delivers more concerning these children the Apostles From whom shall I passe away but from my people the children that are unfaithfull but God shall be their Saviour in all their afflictions his face and countenance shall keep them in his love in his pitie he hath redeemed them and shall be mercifull unto them for length of dayes This hath all truth in it O Master that these Children of whom we speak doth alwayes abide firm and stedfast neither hath God at any time left them and passed away from them since that Righteous one their King and Master hath redeemed them but he hath gone away from us though he abide with them alwayes Of these children the Apostles that wise Jesus the sonne of Sirach hath spoken in his book Hear me your Father O dear children and do thereafter that ye may be safe for the Lord hath given the father honour over the Children After what manner this honour is understood God declareth by the mouth of the Prophet Malachie God shall send Elias who shall turn the hearts of our Fathers to the Children O Master seeing this turning is to be understood of beleeving and turning to the faith if God would have turned the hearts of the Children viz. the Apostles to the Fathers that is to us then the Apostles had moved with us in the same fearfull orbe of miserie and should have been companions with us in this Captivitie that knows no end as we and our Fathers are involved in it But now seeing Gods Ordinance turnes the wheele another way that the hearts of the Fathers shall be turned to the Children what good is there O good Master for us to expect or what glasse of hope can we look in to see a face of comfort If wee shall go about to affirm that these must bee other Children not the Apostles of whom these aforesaid things are meant then must they be in Captivitie as well as we because they did not follow the way of that Righteous One whom the Apostles not onely have stedfastly followed but have also earnestly taught this way should be followed herein attaining to the honour to be named and accounted Fathers in that it is said The fathers should be turned to them Wherefore O Master seeing our Children attained to faith in God before us if our hearts were turned to the Children then the hearts of the children should be turned to us also as the most high God saith They shall be one people and one heart in the glorious and powerfull God For this is to be confessed that we are not to understand it of any other conversion then of turning from infidelitie to the faith and doctrine of that Just One who is the Teacher of salvation to all that beleeve in him As David hath said of him that his Priesthood is an everlasting Priesthood after the Order of Melchisedech who offered a Sacrifice of bread and Wine and this Melchisedech was the Priest of the most High God before Aaron Now here O
beleeve all those Miracles to be done by him which the Gospell records of him This the Alcoran in the forenamed Chapter expressely testifies That the Messias knew doth know all things yea the very sectets of hearts The words of Mahomet are just to this purpose who saith Eise that is Jesus knew every Book and all wisedome and the whole Law of Moses he knew what men did eate and drink in their houses and what they laid up in their Treasuries Besides they say of Christ or the Messias that whiles he was in the world he despised riches and abandoned all carnall delights neither had he any Concubines which are the occasions of sinne and a cause of disobedience Withall their Alcoran has adopted and taken into it that speech of the Gospell The Foxes have holes and the birds of the aire have nests These things thought I confesse they carry no authoritie for their sakes who say them being Saracens yet are they consonant as may appear by our former discourse to those things the Prophets foretold of the first Comming of the Messias They say in their Alcoran That Eise that is Jesus is the Word of God and this to be called the Word of God is accounted the proper name of Jesus Christ among the Saracens in so much as no other man is thus named but Jesus onely whom in the Arabick tongue they call Eise This we further finde in their Alcoran God said to Eise I am thy sufficiency I will lift thee up unto my self and I will purifie thee from the unbeleevers Consider now O Master how the Jewish Nation are redacted and brought to such a paucitie and smalnesse of number by their thousand years Captivitie that they are become the fewest of any Nation on the earth The Saracens are exceedingly multiplyed and daily increase The Faith of Christ hath filled the whole world onely we are bandied and dispersed all over the earth by our angry God we remaine the fewest of any people Reubens curse being fallen on us which his father pronounced against him Thou shalt not excell or increase We increase not at all but the Christians whom we hate above all Nations they increase above all others and all our hatred of them is in vaine A conjoyned testimony of many witnesses stand up against us The Christians witnesse against us so do the Saracens also the Alcoran and the Gospell of Christ which we will not beleeve Which Alcoran in my judgement has no validitie or strength in it seeing it contains manifest contradictions as thou well knowest and as it clearly is evident the Composers of it were very ignoramusses in the matter both of the old and new Testament But letting that passe what shall wee say to the Gospell of the Christians how shall we escape that laying this down as a presupposed truth that Christ or the Messias is already come The beliefe of this principle contains nothing in it that it is contrary to Prophets or to our Law yea of it we may affirme that it is the Lamp that gives light to all the Prophets manifesting them and fulfilling the promises contained in the Law if we understand those promises aright to be meant of spirituall blessings as the doctrine of the Christians conceives of them spiritually Nevertherlesse O Master in all these my doubts my anxious soul hath recourse to thee especially that thou wouldest assist me with thy skill about those knots which before have been excerpt and alledged by me out of the Prophets forasmuch as I know thou who art skilled in the Arabick wilt account the testimony out of the Alcoran no stronger than a lye and esteem it as a Rush Thou perfectly knowest the vanitie of Mahomet who called himself a Prophet but he did not Prophesie or foretell any things to come he called himselfe a Messenger sent from God a good one surely he was who being a corrupt and ignorant fellow much unlike a Messenger of God taught things contrary both to God and his Scriptures The end of the Epistle of Rabbi Samuel which be writ to Rabbi Isaac Master of the Synagogue CHAP. I. Annotations upon the Epistolarie discourse of Rabbi Samuel the Israelite born in a Citie of the Kingdome of Marocco IN the first Chapter and in many other he mentions the continuance of their Captivitie from the vastation of Ierusalem to be in length a thousand years and upwards so that it seems the Booke being Translated about the year 1239 had been hid and kept secret by the Jews from comming into publique light some 230 years and above It may appear more then by conjecture that it was first writ about the thousand years after the entrance into their Captivitie and the Jews seeing it like a lightsome house and full of Candles clearly shewing Christ to be the Messias and that he was already come and by them had been Crucified they fearing if it came into open view it might pluck away the Jewish vail of opposition to Christ from many hearts as plainly demonstrating their sinne and the hidden veritie of Christ the Saviour they put this Candle or Torch under a Bushell and kept it close many years till this Translator lighting upon it did publish and set it on a Candlestick that it might give light to the whole house both of Jews and Gentiles in the Roman language which is become almost oecumenicall understood of all sorts For they thought of this Book as their wicked forefathers thought of Lazarus It were good to put him to death because by reason of him being raised from the dead by Christ many of the Iewes would go away from them and beleeve on Iesus The Hebrew Doctors inquire earnestly what this sinne should be few of them have so much flesh and softnesse in their heart as to yeeld with our Samuel that it was the sinne of slaying Christ for they invent vaine effugia's and wayes of avoidance of the thought of this sinne R. Salomon runnes back to the Wildernesse and sayes The molten Calfe is still punisht God is yet scourging them for that Idolatry Hereupon one teaches the Jews in every misery of theirs to think of it No punishment lights on thee O Israel in which there is not put an Ounce of the molten Calf But this sin God had pardoned long before Christs time Others of them do name some great sinnes of some Particular men but looke not at the great sinne of the whole Nation Some conclude it to be a secret and hidden sin which is not known that brings all these knowne punishments upon them at this day The great Rambam the Oracle of Jewish Learning the excellent second Moses speaks his minde as he is quoted by Ficinus out of of his Book of the Ordinary Judges Iesus of Nazareth seemed to be the Messias and being put to death by the sentence of the Judges was the cause why Israel was destroyed by the sword But Ficinus is mistaken for
from corruption and losse even in corrupting and losing times and are as woodden Candlesticks to the Gentiles holding out the light of the Law He quotes the 49 Chapter of Genesis which he calls the Booke of the Generation of the Creatures of Iudah that is Of the Children and Off-spring of Iudah Well may I here take occasion to give a reason why men onely sometimes are called the Creation and the Creatures and whence it arises To which purpose our understandings may well and soundly take hold on this that the word which signifies creatures properly in common use among the Hebrews signifies onely men sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being the excellentest of subsolar Creatures The same Phrase and manner of speaking is much taken up in the Orientall Languages I shall call in my Witnesse and he may stand for two or three he is of such standing and perfection in the Academie of most exquisite learning it is Hortibonus or Casaubon In the Arabick Geographie saith he in abundance of places we finde the frequencie and fulnesse of Cities thus described the Author saith that in them there are many Creatures that is to say Men. This may well agree with our Samuel who writ in Arabick and this may be a good note affixed to the latter end of the 16 Chapter of Marks Gospell to the illustration of it Go into the whole World and preach the Gospell to every Creature CHAP. XIII THe corporall Ascension of Christ he goes about to prove by those Scriptures that speaks of the exaltation and elevation of God which he saith must properly be meant of Christ according to his humane nature because the meer Deitie is subject to none of these Sites or Postures That of Psalm 68 is applyed to the Ascension of Christ by S. Paul so that R. Samuel the Jew is not ashamed to follow S. Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles in beleeving and asserting the same truth He quotes something out of the Prophet Aser in his second Chapter but he forbears the prosecution of it upon this reason because that Prophesie is lost and is not to be found The Translatour he brings his judgement about the Prophet Aser and reproves the ignorance of R. Samuel that he should think the Prophet Aser to be lost when he is not And his reason is that the Prophet Aser and Haggai are all one onely Haggai is the Hebrew Name and Aser the Arabicke name of the same Prophet which R. Samuel did not know or at least did not call to minde when he writ so Now it were good to unpire the matter betwixt Alphonsus the Spanyard and Samuel the Jew and upon looking into it the Translator will be found in some fault Suppose there be some agreement betwixt Haggai and Aser in their signification Haggai signifying one that solemnizes and keeps a holy and joyfull day of solemnities that rejoyces festivally and Aser comming of a Verbe that signifies to make blessed and happy which may accord in this that the dayes of re-edifying the Temple and Jerusalem in which times Haggai prophecied were holy festivall and blessed dayes Though there be some similitude must there be Identitie How doth Alphonsus know that Aser and Haggai in the Arabick Tongue are the same Prophet This may be disproved two wayes 1. Because R. Samuel writ in Arabick lived among the Arabians and being both a Jewish and an Arabick Doctor he was likely to know as well as Alphonsus the names of Prophets in the Old Testament both in Hebrew and Arabick 2. If Aser and Haggai be all one then let the Spanyard shew us this that he quotes in the Prophecie of Haggai of a man ascending from the midst of the Sea and comming up to Heaven He must coyn a new Prophecie of Haggai if he will finde this in it for our Old Prophet neither in first or second 〈…〉 Chapter has any such thing However we speake of this obscure Prophet Aser which cannot be found what he was yet we may well conclude for the Authour against the Translatour that these words are not to be found in the Prophet Haggai Since these Notes I have found something that is like this which is quoted but neither in R. Samuels obscure Aser nor Alphonsus the Translators Haggai chap. 2. but in the Apocryphals of Esdras Lo there arose a winde out of the sea and lo that man waxed strong with the thousands of heaven Iunius reads it Quidam ut ventus A certain man as the winde came from the sea It should be translated a Man not a winde that did rise out of the Sea so the third Verse intimates that man waxed strong not that winde For rising of the winde is not the thing but the comparison accompanying and illustrating the appearance of the man I think pardoning the errour of the Authors and Translators Quotation both of the Name and the Book and Chapter I am the Oedipus of this Riddle And it may well be his meaning was of this place for in this book he doth besides this make use of the Apocrypha as Chap. 19. he quotes a place out of Jesus the sonne of Syrach and in chap. 20. he has out of the same Book Besides he is subject to some mistakes for in that 20 chapter he cals it Salomons writing when it is the Sonn of Syrachs and in this 13 chapter he quotes a place in Esay when it is in Ieremie Aliquando bonus dormitat Hebraeus calling Esdras Aser Among those were assumed into heaven he names Methusalem and takes it for a thing granted and known among the Jews But we must beleeve Moses who saith that Methusalem when he had lived nine hundred sixty nine years dyed he doth not say he was translated which he had newly said of Enoch his Father The Greeks errour is that he lived 14 years after the floud and was with Noah in the Ark which errour comes out of the Septuagints false computation And some of the Jews it seems are in this errour that because his Father was taken into heaven in his body and soul so was Methusalem too But they that compute and reckon according to the Hebrew numbring of the years do agree that Methusalem dyed that very year the flood came Others think he dyed six years before the floud He concludes the Chapter with asserting the wonderfull birth of Christ born of a Virgin without a man to be a very truth and plainly foretold by the Prophets of God Wherin he grants for a truth one of those six things which are the main Controversies betwixt the Jews and Christians He takes indeed one place to prove the birth of Christ by a Virgin which I dare not say flatly that the Prophet did speak it with any relation to the birth of Christ It is that of Ieremies The Lord shall create a new thing upon the earth a woman shall compasse a man I know the stream of Expositours
runn that way to make it point at Christs Incarnation both ancient and modern which made that Lutheran Beadle provide so terrible a whip for Calvin and lasht him with Calvinus Iudaizans Calvin turn'd Iew because he knew no reason why these words and other places of Scripture should be thought a plaine Prophecie of Christ Neither the consequents or the Antecedents do give any great light to that sense And let a man perpend and consider it well whether the interpretation of Calvin be so strange a thing to the meaning of the Prophets discourse and Sermon He is speaking of Gods delivering his people from the power of Chaldeans and it shall be so wonderfull that he saith A woman shall compasse a man that is the weak and low-brought Israelites that may seem to be compared to women being furnished with new strength from God shall prevail against the Chaldeans their potent enemies that are strong men and thus women may be said to bring men into straits Others besides Calvin have thought this sence to be more litterall and proper to that place then to expound it of Christs Birth The L. shall create a new th up e. a wâ—m shall comp a man that is This wonderfull and new thing will the Lord bring to passe the Church of the Jews that like a wandring and strange woman is departed from the Lord by rebellion and Idolatry to whom she was betrothed once she shall come with bitter repentance returning to her first Husband embracing him again gratiously whom she had vilely forsaken This is that new and wonderfull thing that the Lord should create in this impenitent and wicked people a new heart to return unto him This is commonly called A new Creation And if in this Calvin play the Jew then Luther was a Jew and divers others who could not with their best eye sight spie the Incarnation of Christ plainly and clearly in that Text of the Prophet And if we do not take that peece to confirme Christs spotlesse birth yet do we not want clear proofs and Prophecies against the gainsaying Jews to make it appear as noon-day Against the applying of the Scriptures unduly and unproperly to Christ the words of the ancient Pelusiot are ponderous and precious This course saith he puts harnesse upon the Gentiles and Heretiques in their contentions with us for when we torture and wrest the Scriptures which are not meant of Christ to bring them to point at him we bring suspicion upon those other Scriptures which without any wresting or wringing do lay plainly their meaning in Christs bosome And the great Schoolmaster Aquinas writes with a Quill of the same Wing When a man saith he going about to make proof of the Christian faith shall bring reasons whose clearnesse is not convictive and in a sort coactive that they cannot be denyed he layes himself open to the scorn and derision of Infidels and unbeleevers for they will presently conclude that we lean upon these Reeds and that these weak reasons are the inducements to our faith and the grounds our belief lies upon Whence we draw a Theologicall Canon That Divine truths must be urged and confirmed by indubitate and clear Testimonies else it turns to the detriment of the sayers and it will not convince the gainsayers CHAP. XVI SPeaking of Jews reprobation and Gentiles election he tels of the Jews proud boasting that they are the sonnes of Iacob and Israel pride and contempt of all people in the world besides themselves is the proper fault of the Jews He reasons the case here well Why should they thus contemn and scorn the Gentiles They say they onely are Gods portion and onely fall under the care of his Providence and the Gentiles run at large without the guidance of Gods Providence yea their Land of Canaan is the onely fit and apt place in the world to be the subject of Gods providence With them onely the Jews shall rise again and the Gentiles shall have no resurrection David shall confirm this their opinion in his first Psalm In their Talmud they say It is not murther if a Jew kill a Gentile nor is it perjury if he falsifie his promise to him confirmed by oath Yea their Talmud commands them to hold the Christians in esteem as bruit beasts and no otherwayes to use them then as they use beasts These and many such like le ts us see how the Jews pride themselves and cast the Christians Gentiles low enough in the Court of honour A learned Jew of these times treating of the Resurrection has a Chapter on this Head An etiam Gentes resurgent Whether the Gentiles shall rise again or no he indeed concludes they shall What is the reason that the Jews every year on the eight day of the moneth Tebeth which answers to our December do keep a solemn Fast sorrowing and humbling themselves in the remembrance of the Scripture translated by them into the Greek at the instance of Ptolomaeus Philadelphus Do they execrate and abhort the memory of that act It seems it is out of meer hatred and envy that any good or any knowledge of God should be scattered among the Gentiles We hear of old they could not endure to hear Paul to speak one word more when they heard this from him that the Lord said to him Depart for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles so soon as this is mentioned then they crie out Away with such a fellow from the earth for it is not fit that he should live In their Stories as that of R. Iosue Ben Levi that was up and down heaven and Hell he findes Christians and abundance of all Nations in Hell but we hear tell of no Jews there It is well that God follows not the Jews rule that scorn all but their own people But in every Nation he that fears God and works righteousnesse and Gentile as well as Jew is accepted with him CHAP. XVIII HE admirably agrees with S. Paul in the Application of the nineteenth Psalm to the preaching of the Gosspell by the Apostles Their sound is gone out into all the earth and their words into the ends of the world CHAP. XIX HE applies the Prophecie of Ioel about the Old men dreaming dreams and the young men seeing Visions to the Apostles and the abundant knowledge of God they had above former times just as S. Peter applyes it Acts 2. so that he is an Asserter of the truth with Paul he applyes the predictions of the Prophets Evangelically with S. Peter and will needs discover himselfe a Christian every way He makes one notable observation concerning the faith of Christ That of the Apostles of Christ that embraced the Faith not one of them did ever recant and return to embrace the Jews faith any more Iosephus the Jew does highly applaud the followers of Christ for their constancy Writing of Christ he saith There was at that
Scripture Behold darknesse shall cover the earth and grosse darknesse the people but the Lord shall arise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee Esay 60. 2. In which he plainly confesses no marvell if the Jews stumble because they shall be left in a thick spirituall Myst of blindnesse Blindnesse in part is happened to Israel untill the fulnesse of the Gentiles be come in They frame their faith into an imagination of two Messiahs that shall come the one the sonne of Ioseph the other the sonne of David His glorie is like the firstling of a Bullock Deu. 33. 17. that is the sonne of Ioseph Zach. 9. 9. He is lowly riding upon an Asse and upon a Colt the Foal of an Asse this is their Messias the sonne of David Both these they will needs finde in the 32 of Esay Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters that send forth thither the feet of the Oxe and the Asse These two are both but one Iesus Christ for he was the sonne of Ioseph that was betrothed to his Mother his son not by the flesh but by education and bringing up Besides he was the son of David by the glorious Virgin his Mother who by the flesh descended from the Seed of David Messias the son of Ioseph being dead Messias the son of David they beleeve shall raise him again Their Messias shall make them great Feasts and Marry a Wife Kings daughters shall be among his honourable women on his right hand shall stand his Queen in Gold of Ophir The Kings of the world will think themselves highly honoured if any of them could get the Messias to marry their daughter He shall beget Children and see his childrens children and after he shall die as other men but his children shall rule and reign over Israel And whiles they are thus under their Messias the Christians shall do all their works drudgery without any wages Earth shall bring forth fruits for them presently after they are sown all kinde of pleasure peace shal they have c. Thus they grow up from dotage to dotage and wander without end in the framing to themselves a carnall Saviour and a sensuall salvation Let the 11 Chapter of the Gemara of the Sanhedrin be perused and there is enough from the Jews to stop the mouthes of the Jews concerning the expectation of any other Messiah besides Iesus Christ My intentions are not a fâ—ll confutation of them but onely the confirmation of Samuels Arguments CHAP. XXVII HE pleads against the Jews that they through incredulity and obstinacy will not receive Christ by the testimony of Saracens and Mahumetans concerning him Whence we note that Christs bitterest and blasphemousest enemies are the Jews his own Countreymen and Brethren after the flesh Venit ad suos sues eum non receperunt as the Waldenses in their Writings have it They are pertinacious and stâ—ffe-hearted nothing will convince them Sabbatius a Jew was baptized and made a Christian Minister he yet afterwards did secretly abide in his Jewish infidelitie When any of their Zealots are put to death for some pranks against Christ and Gospell as blasphemy or perfidiousnesse yet if their Writers mention it their evill deaths are commonly set out with this phrase He was slain propter sanctificationem Dei for the sanctifying of God as they say of R. Mordechai at Norenberge R. Ganz relating how five thousand Jews were put to death he saith they were burnt in fire propter sanctificationem Dei neque stultitiam vel peccatum tribuerunt Deo nor charged they God with sin or folly that is They did not renounce their Judaisme R. Amnon publikely sanctified the Lord by his death So Rabbi Abraham sanctificavit seipsum propter nomen proprium seu Dei A Christian disputing with Jews at Rome when by Scripture he clearly convinced them yet they remitted nothing of their pertinacie nay one of them answered Although thou shouldest shew it to me as clear as the Noone-dayes light that Christ is the Messias yet I am resolved of one thing I will not beleeve it It is reported at Coleine there was a Jew as was thought converted to the Christian Faith initiated by Baptism growing up to many years a little before his death he rejected with execration the Christian Religion and professed his Jewish mis-belief which it was judged he had abandoned Hereupon dying they made this Embleme be infixed on his Tomb a Mouse is represented pursuing a Catt with this Inscription Quando mus felem capiet Iudaeus etiam conversus manebit Christianus VVhen a Mouse shall catch a Cat then a Jew converted to be a Christian will remain a firme Christian By which it is in a manner concluded that it is amongst incredibles to think that any Jew will heartily convert and turn to Christ Yet God has a time and a power and a way to raise up these stones and make them children to Abraham Vsquequo Domine O for the time when the Jews shall be seene mourning over Jesus whom they have pierced The last thing is induction of Alcoran Testimonies concerning Christ some have done it besides this man as Dionysius à Rickel It was the good intent of the Jew to shame his Countreymen any way out of their infidelity and might be provoked by the very Turks to think and speak better of Christ But here is the Poyson if they write one syllable of truth concerning Christ they line it with so many Lies as makes it abominable This is one of their sentences concerning Christ The Word of God and his Spirit entred into Mary the sister of Moses and Aaron and she without Seed did bring forth Iesus Christ who was a Prophet and servant of God Mark what non-Divinity is here not speaking as the Gospell speaks The Word of God and Spirit entred into Mary Mark what non-sense and non-reason is here that Mary the Mother of Christ was the same with Miriam the sister of Moses and Aaron whereas that Miriam lived thousandâ— of years before Mary Christs Mother was born I could alledge some good sayings of theirs concerning Christ but that the Devill is to be rebuked speak he never so well They say Jesus the son of Mary shall descend from Heaven to earth in the day of the Resurrection and shall judge the world in it with just judgement Again Iesus shall slay men and shall bring forth Gog and Magog and they shall die but Iesus shall remain alive and they that partake of his faith What ever they say of Christ it matters not for though they make him great yet they put him but as a Servingman to Mahomet whom they alwayes exalt higher It is verily beleeved they say by many wise and learned Heads even in Arabia and followed with reasons to prove it that the first Author of the Alcoran was not man but the