the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead Where he signifies the second comming of the Messias to judgement when God himselfe in the day of judgement shall raise the dead to life The same is also in the Prophecy of Daniel and many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake that is the resurrection of the dead to life shall be common to all the just and the wicked shall also receive their bodies but to be punished in them and in their soules and dye perpetually Moreover when the Prophet saith thy dead hee directs his speech to God and then a voice shall come from heaven and shall say to them awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust So when he saith they dew he speakes figuratively to God for as the dew doth quicken and cause the herbes to grow up so the dew of divine power shall quicken the dead and the earth shall cast forth her dead that is God shall condemne the wicked and thrust them out into hell but the just shall goe with Christ into eternall life and then the present world shall have an end and the elect shall be with God in the Kingdome of heaven for ever and ever but the wicked shall be shut up together with the devill into hell from whence they shall never be delivered as it is said in the same place some shall awake to eternall life but some to reproaches and to perpetuall abomination Behold this is our faith concerning the resurrection of the dead and so also our holy Prophets have taught Iew Our Rabbies also have taught us how we should beleeve but after another manner for they have said the resurrection of the dead shall bee for all the just and for some wicked for the Lord shal cast forth those that be dead that is the wicked to the earth but that cannot give them life Moreover the dead which then the Lord shall raise to life shall not differ from other men in the use of humane life for they shall have a free choice of good and evill for therefore he saith some to eternall life but some unto reproaches and eternall abomination untill at length they come into contempt and a continuall consummation that no part of good shall come to them but even as the Prophet saith at that time the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord Then the abundance of divine knowledge shal so much increase that the faith of God shall never be wanting neither shall man bee changed but to good and to perfection and many Iewes say these things shall be before the daies of the Messias at which time miracles without number shal come to passe Christian And here you likewise erre seeing all these miracles are fulfilled already some few excepted which shall come to passe in the second comming of the Messias namely in the end of the world when God and the Messias shall come to judge the quick and the dead for the Messias is come already and hath quickned the dead some from a corporall death some from a spirituall death At this day Idols have ceas'd in the world as it is written The earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord for all Nations professe at this day one God At this day much people walk to the house of the God of Iacob which is the congregation of the faithfull beleeving in Christ who also figuratively are called the spirituall Ierusalem At this day the wolfe remaines with the Lamb that is the wicked and devourer with the meeke and doth not hurt him Peace also was through the whole world in those daies when Christ was born for then one man namely Octavianus did reigne over the whole world in peace But in the world to come which is the kingdome of Christ there shall bee peace without end now the Ports of Ierusalem are open that every one that will may enter and the mountain of the Lord is established upon the top of the mountaines and is lifted above the hils To day in the heavenly Ierusalem which is the City of beleevers in Christ who is already come a voice of weeping and mourning shall no more bee heard there but beleevers in Christ shall remaine there not onely five hundred yeares but for ever But yee Iewes do not understand this word as Isaias hath prophecied the Ox knoweth his owner and the Asse his Masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider as if hee should say they would not understand and walke in a right way interpreting places of Scripture according to their owne fancies knowing that their words are defended by no truth as I will explaine below where they say Christ shal have sons and daughters And is it not written in the Thalmud in the Treatise Nisa that the Messias shall not come till the soules bee perfected from the body that is brought out of that closet from whence the soules shall come which are created for they so call the body Know therfore their words are empty and foolish when they frame expositiōs of things to come for they doe it to triumph and obstinately to remain in their errour lest if they repented and stood off from their purpose they should lie under shame and disgrace but they themselves confesse they dare not for the people sing a recantation for otherwise they should be killed because they have so blinded the eyes of the common people with their false consolations But I know you Iewes doe object to us Christians that this gave occasion to your so tedious banishment because Iesus being born of the seed of David of the Iewes made himselfe God and drew many of the people to him who beleeved in him which neverthelesse is a very bad errour with you and your ancestors Did they not kill him for it and hang him upon a tree if they had done well God ought rather to hasten their redemption for that fact even before the end of their banishment were come especially seeing they had fulfilled that command Thou shalt root out evill from the midst of thee and did hee not promise this very thing to them by Moses Moreover if the words of Christ were lies why did not God send some Prophet or vision as he did in the daies of the Kings when they worshipped Baal and other Idols admonishing them to abstaine from that vanity and did reprove them But forasmuch as this hath not been done we may conclude that his words and deeds were true and just Blessed therefore is the man who puts his trust in the Lord and in his Christ and whose confidence the Lord is for the time wherein he hopes in him and in the Messias sent in the second house I have other Arguments which I could bring proving the Messias to be already come but I think it needlesse to alledge more here seeing I have cited those
number 1335 be accomplisht Iew Some say that number is extended to the year of the world 6118 which is the 2367 year of Christ For first they counted 1290 daies to that time when they laid down the abomination of desolation after the destruction of the temple according to the words of Daniel and afterwards they began to number 1335 daies But they who went before us did not receive this supputation but every man laboured to finde out some account which might agree with their daies And after this manner thou shalt finde with our Rabbies of good memory many divers bounds which are al past for they were carefull to finde out some neere bound lest the common people should despaire because redemption was suspended Christian And so your Rabbies doe alway seduce you saying behold at this time the Messias shall come and when that that is past again they say at that time he shall come How will yee believe these lying words Consider you have no hope and salvation is deferred from you and God is departed from you and you have no consolation not a prophet nor vision therefore be converted acknowledge your Saviour and our Saviour our Lord Christ Iew Neither have wee had from the beginning of the second Temple a Prophet or vision but in those daies when the Messias shall begin to grow Then prophecies and visions shall be multiplied But at this time all vision and prophecie is sealed for the end of the vision of the Prophets hath respect wholly to the growing of the Messias Kingdome When hee shall come we shall have great consolations so that al the daies of our captivity shall bee counted as a little moment as it is written I have left thee a little moment and in great mercies I wil gather thee Christian Vision and prophecy is shut up from your eies but not from our eies for we are all taught of God and the mysteries of the Kingdome of God are revealed to us and if you also will believe in our Lord Christ you may enter into the Kingdome of God Iew Wee cannot beleeve in your Christ because hee was a Magician and all his miracles were wrought by the Magick Art and therefore he was judged to death as the Lord God taught us and because hee brake the Sabbath and said hee was a God therefore the Iewes slew him Christian Hold your peace knave and doe not so reproach our Saviour but if you will at another time I will come to you that wee may speake more of this matter Who knows peradventure thou wilt acknowledge the truth and receive our Gospell Iew I am content that according to your pleasure you come to me but speak nothing to me of your bad tidings Christian Take heed to your selfe that you say not bad tidings but good tidings for it is a manifestation of the goodness of God which came to us by Christ the Redeemer of the world But why doe you so refuse to heare the Gospell and why doe you shun the light and will set in darknesse Is it not written concerning the light of the Gospell the people which did walke in darkenesse saw a great light and to them which dwell in the shadow of death light hath shined Iew This is the reason why I will not heare because Iesus your Messias was an evill man and his speeches were fained and the glorious God saw that hee would seduce the world and would set himselfe forth for God and for that God hath said that men should die but Iesus ought to bee hanged upon the Crosse that so all that should come into the world might see that hee was not God Moreover none of the Prophets hath prophecied frō that time wherin Christ being crucified was hang'd up none of Israel neither any of the Nations because a lying spirit did so much prevail in the world that there was no place for the spirit of prophecie But also we suffer al these tribulations and this very long captivity because that wicked man was borne of us and in our land who made himselfe God and seduced the whole world Christian All those evils which you Iewes suffer came not upon you because of our Christ because he said that he was God and the son of God but rather for this because your fathers slew him and crucified him a holy man and just the Saviour of the world who did no evill neither was deceit found in his mouth Behold this holy man your fathers slew and numbered him with the wicked and ye all allow this fact to this very day and therefore ye shall never find grace in the eies of God unlesse ye return from that evill way and acknowledge our Lord Iesus Christ whom ye in contempt do call Ieschim Vnless you beleeve in him you shall all perish and shall goe downe to hell Behold I have foretold it you shall not finde other salvation in heaven and in earth and for this cause seeke the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is neere Forsake your unbelieving heart and returne to the Lord and he will have mercy on you and to our God for hee will abundantly pardon you Be not like your fathers who hardned their faces more than a rocke and would not returne to the Lord but dealt wickedly against the Lord the God of their fathers who delivered them to be spoiled as you see it at this day I beseech you harden not your necks as you have done hitherto but give your hands to the Lord and acknowledge that Christ is sent for the salvation of all men who shall beleeve in him the Lord our God is gratious and mercifull who will not turne away his face from you if yee returne to him Iew You shal never perswade me to receive your faith and believe in your Christ for that which you beleeve no reason can comprehend neither any man understand For how shal I beleeve that the Creator of heaven and earth and all things that are in them shut himselfe up in the wombe of a Iewish Virgin grew nine moneths and was borne a child and afterward increased in stature and was delivered into the hands of his enemies who condemned him with the judgement of death slew him on the Crosse and yee afterward say and beleeve that he lived again and returned to his former state neither the mind of a Iew neither can any man comprehend this therefore you spend your words in vaine seeing that these things have no likelihood of truth Christian Knowest thou not that nothing is unpossible to God verily all those things which you have now mentioned are in the Prophets but wrapt in the covering of words for thus saith the Prophet Isaias Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare a son and shall call his name Immanuel And in another place hee saith Hee was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was
forsomuch as at this day great Whales are found in the sea that is the greatest fishes that devour the lesser therefore powerfull Kings are compared to Whales who afflict and oppresse the poore but the Lord can easily slay them although in strength they bee not inferiour to the Whales of the sea this is the mind of Ezekiel Moreover whereas you assert one of the Whales was slaine by God you are constrained to say Ionas was swallowed up by one seeing there was not another in the sea But heare what the Prophet writes of himselfe and the Lord prepared a great fish to devoure Ionah The Lord brought not a great fish or that Whale from the end of the world which was left in the beginning of the world but that Whale which by providence was found in that sea this the Lord did ordaine to swallow up Ionah And if you object a Whale or Leviathan and a great fish are unlike I answer that is not true seeing the Rabbies do expound the word tannim for a great fish do you think that fish was a little one which swallowed up Ionah and kept him alive three daies and three nights in his belly What you bring out of the Psalmes I shortly avoid thus there the singular number is taken for the plurall which you know is frequent in the Hebrew as a man oxe sheep c. Moreover you deprave that place brought out of Iob for the Lord doth not say there the companions shall eat the Leviathan but he speaks after this manner shall the companions and associates make a banquet of him or shall the Merchants divide him amongst them after the manner of those who buy fishes and divide them into parts and that place may have this interpretation Will the companions dig a pit to draw him thither out of the sea by their hissing and take him doe you see how unhappily the Fathers have understood and expounded that place this also is very false and a great errour amongst you that the just in the world to come shall eat temporall food and corporall bread the flesh of beasts and fish herbs and corn of which bread is made which we need in this life where wee grow and doe beget an off-spring and doe renew that which is appaired in our body by the adjection of meat But in the world to come and resurrection of the dead it is farre otherwaies with us for then man shall be by the resurrection a new creature and renewed upon their former bones like that vision in Ezekiel when the Lord God did raise up his people saying I will lay sinews upon you and will bring up flesh upon you and will cover you with skin and put breath in you and ye shall live Wherfore your Rabbies have said in the secrets of the Law that there is in the neibe a very stiffe bone which being put in the fire is not hurt by it and being put into the ground doth not putrifie and they affirm the resurrection of the body doth increase by that So also it is in Genesis and the Lord madeâ— made I say upon the bone sinewes flesh and skin and breathed into her the breath of life and brought her to Adam thaâ— by this mystery he might foreshew although man shoulâ— dye yet hee should rise in the same body and should be madâ— a building of nerves bones and flesh joined together which should not be dissolved wherefore Adam called her bone of my bone because the resurrection of man should be in his first bones of eternall life Then the just no longer shall eat corporall bread which doth not free from death neither drink wine which the earth doth bring forth but shall eate the bread of Angels that is as the just shall live in the spirit as Angels so they shall eate food which shal not putrifie nor perish neither shall the elect of God want any longer the light of the Sun by day neither shall the Moone give them light by night but the Lord shall be a perpetuall light to them and their God shall bee their glory and they shal then eat spiritual fruits because eye hath not seen those things which God will doe for them who wait upon him See Isaiah concerning this place in the 60 chap. above mentioned thou shalt find many things in the text which are not to bee understood according to the bare sense of the letter as you erroneously doe for the most part but in spirit and in truth if in the future world according to your errour there were bodily eating there should be also death and consequently another resurrection which is false and a great errour for it is sowne in this world a mortall body and shall rise in the resurrection of the just immortall for they shall then be as the Angels of God which are in heaven and shall never die And to conclude you now see that those men are witlesse who say that the just in the future world shall eat a common Oxe and that salted Whale and shall drinke wine which Paradice brought forth seeing that the just in the future world shall not live in the earth but in the heavens with God Blessed is the man who shall eate bread in the Kingdome of God But I will propound another question to you and I desire you to answer me to it The question is this why doe not you Iewes believe in in our Messias seeing that in him all the prophecies are fulfilled which are written concerning him in the Law and the Prophets but do make your faces more hard than a rock yea though with open eies you see there is no salvation in the earth for the people who walk in darknesse and see no light Iew If I would answer peradventure you would be displeased but who being so provok'd can refrain speaking especially seeing the zeale of the house of the Lord hath eaten mee up and the reproaches of them who reproach God are fallen upon me You aske why wee believe not in the Messias neither receive him as you doe to wch I answer you thus In your Christ the words of the Prophets are not fulfilled which they did foretell concerning the Messias neither are the mysteries of the Law fulfilled although wee know the time of his comming is not far off and therefore through all generations they which are of the seed of David with great desire do expect in their daies the comming of salvation and the time of the King Messiah Christian And why I pray you doth that your Messias so long delay his comming to deliver you out of your tribulations in which you are or how can GOD himselfe see for this so long time your calamity which you suffer in this captivity and doth not deliver you out of your troubles executing judgement upon your enemies why doth he suffer you so to wander through the world as sheep which have no
thy place from the north parts thou and many people with thee and thou shalt come up against my people Israel as a cloud to cover the land ver. 19,20 And in that day there shall be a great shaking in the Land of Israel so that the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the heaven and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep upon the earth and all the men that are upon the face of the earth shall shake at my presence and the mountains shall be throwne downe and the steep places shall fall and every wall shall fall to the ground and I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains saith the Lord God every mans sword shall be against his brother Christian These words of the Prophet are wonderful but pursue your discourse and declare what you know Iew It follows And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood and I will rain upon him and his bands and upon the many people that are with him an overflowing raine and great hailstones fire and brimstone Thus wil I magnifie my selfe and sanctifie my selfe and I will bee knowne in the eyes of many Nations and they shall know that I am the Lord Againe saith the Lord behold I am against thee Gog and I will smite thee and punish thee with six plagues and will cause thee to come up from the north parts and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand Thou shalt fall upon the mountaines of Israel thou and all thy bands and the people that is with thee I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured Behold he saith in that great war shall be a great tumult to which Zachary alludeth who in his prophecy speaketh thus The mountaine of Olives shall be rent also every mans sword shall bee against his brother in that tumult of the Lord neither shall be left of them but the sixt part of the multitude and they shall goe to all Nations to declare the glory of the Lord amongst the Nations that they come not against Ierusalem or hee shall judge them with six judgments namely plague blood overflowing raine hail-stones fire and brimstone But what he saith fishes of the sea and foules of heaven know that is spoken hyperbolically to shew the greatnesse of the tumult which shall be Christian Why understand you that which is spoken of the fishes of the sea c. hyperbolically but expoundest the other part of the prophecy according to the letter and where I pray you is it written that Alexander King of the Greeks shut up the sons of Magog within the mountaines but continue that prophecie as you have begun Iew Againe Ezechiel saith And they that dwell in the Cities of Israel shall goe forth and shall set on fire and burne the weapons both the shield and the bucklers the bows and the arrowes and the hand-staves and the speares and they shal burne them with fire seven yeares they shall take no wood out of the field neither cut downe any out of the Forrests for they shall burne the weapons with fire that is they shall not need to cut downe trees out of the woods but the weapons of warre shall suffice Moreover he saith ver. 11. And it shall come to passe at that day that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel the vally of the passengers on the East of the Sea and it shall stop the noses of the passengers there shall the house of Israel bury them to the end that they may cleanse the land seven moneths the stinke of the dead shall cause those that passe by that way to stop and shut their noses from that very evill stink and the people of the land shall be emploied in the burying of them seven moneths also the Nations who came to worship shall goe forth out of Ierusalem into the vally of Iehosaphat to see the carcasses of the army of Gog and Magog who dealt wickedly against the Lord And though the house of Israel doe bury them that they may cleanse the earth seven months 't is possible that they may see in those seven months the judgement of those wicked men for they shall see their carcasses full of wormes gnawing them and fire burning in them as it is written They shall go forth and see the carcasses of those men who have done perversely against me for their worme shall not dye neither their fire be extinguisht Christian You have hitherto multiplied words of divers things I would have you repeat to me those things in a compend which you have alledged here and above Iew I will doe it and give you 15 answers 5 out of scripture and 5 out of the Caball and 5 by clear demonstration Of the 5 which are brought out of Scripture this is the first It is written that all shall bee gathered together from the foure parts of the world to come to Ierusalem and not a remnant or one of them shall remaine in a strange land and I will gather them to their own land and will leave none of them there any more c. but in the daies of the second Temple they of Israel were not gathered together but as it is written the whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore and for our comfort it is written that the Israelites shall be gathered together in the day of salvation from these Isles from Elam from Sinear and Homath But in the time of the first house we do not find that one of them was transported to the Isles of the sea and by consequent none was to be brought back from hence Christian There is no truth in your mouth who at your own pleasure doe pervert the Scriptures for the mentioned places of Scripture are to be understood of the gathering together of the Babylonish dispersion concerning which we find it thus written Remember I beseech thee the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses saying if ye transgresse I will scatter you abroad among the Nations but if ye turn unto me and keep my commandements and do them though there were of you cast out to the utmost parts of the heaven yet will I gather them from thence and will bring them to the place that I have chosen to set my name there But if you object that the Lord said in Ezekiel I will gather them together to their own land and will not leave any of them but in the time of Ezra all the Israelites did not returne to their owne land I answer that is not true for Ezra saith and all the Israelites dwelt in their Cities Moreover that is to be noted which is written in Deuteronomie concerning
shepherd Consider that you have not a certaine and constant dwelling place I desire to know the reason why God hath cast you from him so many yeares nor doth at any time remember you for your good For when of old he punisht your fathers for their sins when they were converted and did confesse and praied unto him in their banishment he forthwith delivered them and sent them a deliverer why doth hee not the same in this time of your grievous captivity Iew Know you not that his wisdome and his counsels are not to be searcht into which do so far exceed our apprehensions as it is written The Lord is terrible in his counsell towards the sons of men we know not neither can we apprehend his wisdome and prudence or find it out and know it but he knows what he doth Christian I wonder at this your answer when you say you know not the cause why God hath cast you out of his presence surely it must needs be for some great sin such as you never committed from the beginning of the world you or your fathers whatsoever it is Furthermore when you say the comming of the Messias is nigh tell me I pray what that is which is recited in the Talmud When Rabbi Ioshua the son of Levi did aske Elias when the Messias would come and where is he he answered at Rome amongst the weake and going thither hee found him If hee was then at Rome doubtlesse he is come and borne already and yee expect him in vaine Iew The Messias is not yet come but he was borne in the time of the destruction of the Temple which the book Haggadoth that is the book of insinuations or denuntiations doth shew Christian If hee was borne in the time of the desolation from which time almost a thousand and five hundred yeares are now past and at this day hee is not yet come when I pray you or how will hee come seeing that it is not allowed in nature for any man to live a thousand and five hundred yeares Iew You know the first men lived a long time and that to the flood as some came almost to the thousandth yeare but Elias and Enoch did live much longer whom God kept alive and who live to this very day so the Messias being borne along time before is yet preserved in life Christian Where therefore and in what place is he at this day is he yet at Rome Iew It may easily bee demonstrated from scripture where he is Consider the first Adam in his first estate was in the earthly paradice but because of his sin he was cast forth from thence as saith the Scripture God sent him out of the garden of pleasure It followes therefore that he who was free from the punishment of Adam should bee in Paradice so our wise men have said in the book of denuntiations Christian I doe not well understand what you would signifie by the word denunciations therefore before you proceed declare that word to mee Iew Know therefore with us are three kinds of books one kind of books we call the 24. which commonly are called the Bible and on these wee beleeve firmely and with a perfect faith because they were written by the Prophets and other godly men to whom the Lord made known his will and did reveal mysteries Another kind is called the Talmud and is an Exposition or explanation oâ— the precepts of the Law foâ— there are in the Law of Moses 613 precepts and all these are explained in the Talmud iâ— which booke we also beleeve as in an exposition of precepts which are in the hands of our Rabbies who received it from their Fathers and their Fathers received it from the Prophets and they received it from God Thirdly wee have a kinde of books which is called Medras which signifies an inquisition or discussion of matters and we commonly interpret it a common opinion for there what every man thought and what seemed right to him hee wrote down wherefore they which believe these writings do well and he that doth not believe them wrongs not himselfe Some wise men say and have also left it in writing to us that the Messias shall not be borne untill the time of our deliverance is come or shall draw nigh that he may bring us out of that captivity and I rather assent to this opinion than their judgement who say the Messias is borne long agoe namely in the time of the of the desolation of the Temple and we call the mentioned inquisition by another name Haggada that is a denunciation for it is nothing else but a certaine denunciation whereby one man signifies any thing to another Christian Is the Messias alwaies at Rome according to their opinion who thought hee was at Rome Iew Hee is not alwaies at Rome but at that time hee was seene there for Elias said to Rabbi Ioshua the son of Levi that at that time he should find him there and he might be seen for a certaine cause which is signified in Haggadoth but which I meane not to reveale to you nor to any other Christian forasmuch as I know our words are an abomination in your eyes and therefore we write such mysteries in the Tables of our heart Christian Disclose to mee I pray you what he did at Rome or what he will do these and why he will rather goe thither than to another place and do not conceale it from me Iew Because you have so earnestly intreated me I will tell you but see you disclose it not to others for you know how they are wont to deride us when they have heard our secrets Haggada saith the Messias remaines at Rome untill he destroy it as we read concerning Moses our Law-giver who was bred up in the house of Pharoah untill at length he took vengeance of him and drowned all his people in the sea and he came not presently after hee was borne and delivered Israel but after many yeares when the Lord God gave him command then hee came and said to Pharaoh Thus saith the Lord let my people goe that they may serve me So the Messias when the fulnesse of time is come shall come to the Pope by the command of God and shall say to him let my people go that they may serve me then I say the Messias shall be said to have come and till that time he is not said to be come But neither is the Messias called as David the King was not King or anointed the same day wherin he was borne but after that Samuel had anointed him by the commandement of God then was hee anointed King So when Elias hath anointed the Messias by the commandement of God then shal he be the Messias and shall come these things are out of Haggada Christian You tell me strange things but all your words seem to be more like a lie than truth for the Prophets of the Lord have
taught far otherwaies neither are the words of Haggada true in this when it will compare Moses to Christ and the Egyptian captivity to the captivity of this time For the Israelites in Egypt did serve onely Pharoah for it is thus written Moses said to Pharaoh let my people goe c. for he alone without another King had the government over Israel and when he would not let them go God with a strong hand and a stretcht out arme and with great judgement brought them forth But in the present captivity the Iewes are not only under the power of the Pope but are disperst and scattered into the foure parts of the world seeing it is so how can the Pope by his power and authority let them goe who are not at all found under his dominiō Furthermore Moses delaid not after his nativity but fourscore years after which he delivered Israel and when I turne my selfe to the words of the Thalmud which saith the Messias is born but hitherto hath delaid his comming now a thousand and five hundred yeares I easily conclude that the words of the Thalmud are false or the first comparison foolish I would have you at least to take this to heart this very long captivity which hath no end or bound nor any consolation all which your fathers had in the captivity of Babel yea after that they offended God by their manifold abominations worshipping Idols and profaning the Sabbath and other solemnities and turning away from all the commandements of God proclaimed by Moses when they did these things God sent the Prophets to them to dehort them and he reproved them by manifold rebukes the Prophets telling them unlesse they did breake off they should bee carried out of their owne land and should fall into the hands of their enemies Loe you see that even in the worst times they had Prophets who did threaten them and againe gave them words of comfort speaking to their hearts even in that houre when they committed the evill likewise in the houre wherein they went into banishment out of their owne land the Prophets came to them and comforted them and the Lord revealed to them the end of their captivity by the Prophet Ieremiah and they were in the captivity but seventy yeares but in the Moderne captivity there is not a Prophet there is no comforting vision but the captivity daily becomes more grievous and all the bounds of the captivity which the wise men have set are past a long time agoe and we are certain the word of our Creator shall remain stands firme to eternity neither shall be accomplisht from good into evill but from evill into good as it appears concerning Egypt when hee began to count the end of that captivity from the nativity of Isaac The same appeares concerning the Ninevites who when they had committed all wickednesse so soon as they repented of the evils God was mercifull to them But in this your captivity you indeed doe observe the Sabbath and solemnities and other commandments of God which your fathers before the Babylonish captivity and in the captivity did not keepe when they had altogether forgot the Law of Moses but notwithstanding all this when the time of seventy years was fulfilled they were delivered But is it not written keep ye judgement and do justice for my salvation is near to come and my righteousnesse to be revealed blessed is the man that doth this and the son of man that laieth hold on it keeping the Sabbath from polluting it From this we gather when the Israelits do keep the Sabbath and make repentance they are not banisht from their own land But in the modern captivity the Iewes keepe the Sabbath and other precepts of God they make repentance they pray and give almes why therefore doth not the Messias come see how often they have made a great and solemn repentance with their whole heart and whole soule and all their strength that the end of their captivity might bee revealed to them but their prayer was not heard they did that especially in the 5262 yeare of the world which was the 1502 yeare of Christ when all the Iewes made a publick repentance through all their habitations in all the earth and through the whole captivity and that almost for a whole yeare both young men and old men women and children such a repentance as was never heard of in the foregoing ages and they did it for the comming of the Messias but all in vaine for there was nothing revealed to them neither token or any signe not to speake of any greater thing and truly that thing is a great wonder a hissing and clapping of hands to all who heare it that nothing doth help them not law nor repentance not prayer neither any almes all which they doe daily is not this a manifest signe that the Messias is already come but because you refuse to believe this word the keeping of the Law and the works of your hands are nothing Hence we may conclude thus if for repentance your freedome shall come and the gathering together of your scattering ye shall never be redeemed forsomuch as you have alwaies been a rebellious people and of a stiffe neck Moreover you see and know how vaine the words of Rabbi are who are here doubtfull and perplext and disagreeing amongst themselves One hath said the Messias shall not come but in a generation which is wholly righteous or in a generation which is wholly wicked and so thought Rabbi Iohanan the son of Lacae proving it thus In a generation which is wholly guilty because it is thus written and hee saw there was no man and he wondred that there was no intercessour therefore his arme brought salvation unto him and his righteousnesse it sustained him Also in a generation which is wholly cleane because it is thus written and all thy people shall be just they shall possesse the earth for ever Also Rabbi Eleeser saith if the Israelites shall make repentance they shall immediately bee redeemed seeing it is written turne or make repentance O backsliding children to which Rabbi Ioshua answers thus was it not said you have sold your selves for nought in your idolatry and shall bee redeemed without monie namely by repentance and good works Hence wee gather that the Rabbies themselves were doubtfull whether the congregation of the captivity should bee made by repentance or not and wee now already see repentance hath profited you nothing therfore all the words of the Rabbies which they speak concerning the modern captivity are mere lies and errours and that verse cited out of Isa. hee saw there was no man c. doth justly agree with Iesus our Saviour in the houre of his passion who saw none to repent and for this cause it is rightly said repent ye backsliding children as if he should say if they shall repent over this thing and