the very middle of the world That in the Messiahs dayes Wheate shall grow without renewing by Seed as the Vine But of these and the like more then enough in this booke following L. Carretus a Conuert from the Iewes setteth downe these size as the maine differences betwixt them and vs The Trinitie the Incarnation the manner of his comming whether in humilitie or royaltie the Law ceremoniall which the Iew holdeth eternall saluation by and for our owne workes which the Christian ascribeth to Faith in Christ crucified and lastly of the time of his comming whether past or present To these he thinketh all other may be referred But let vs examine the particulars CHAP. XIIII Of the Iewish opinions of the Creation their Ceremonies about the birth of a Child Of their Circumcision Purification and Redemption of the first-borne and Education of their Children §. I. Of their Exposition of Scripture a taste in Gen. 1.1 THeir Exposition of Scripture is so absurd that wee haue hence a manifest argument that as they denyed the Sonne that Eternall Word and Truth whose written word this is so that Spirit which indited the same the Spirit of Truth hath put a vayle on their heart and iustly suffered the spirit of errour to blind their eyes that seeing they should see and not vnderstand This will appeare generally in our ensuing Discourse but for a taste let vs begin with the beginning of Moses whereon R. Iacob Baal Hatturim hath left to the world these smoakie speculations The Bible beginneth with Beth the second letter in the Alphabet and not with Aleph the first because that it is the first letter of Beracha which signifieth blessing this of Arour that is a curse Secondly Beth signifieth two insinuating the two-fold Law written and vnwritten for Bereshith hath the letters of Barashetei first hee made secondly Lawes thirdly Bereshith the first word of Genesis hath as many letters as Aleph be Tishrei that is the first of Tishrei or Tisri on which the Iewes say the world began fourthly Bereshith hath the letters of Baijth roshe that is the first Temple which he knew the Iewes would build and therefore created the world fiftly it hath the letters of Iare shabbath that is to keepe the Sabbath for God created the world for the Israelites which keepe the Sabbath sixtly also of Berith esh which signifieth the Couenant of fire to wit Circumcision and the Law another cause of the creation seuenthly likewise it hath the letters of Bara iesh that is hee created as many worlds as are in the number Iesh that is three hundred and ten that the Saints might reioyce therein Now if I should follow them from these letters and spelling to their mysticall sententious exposition of greater parts of the sentence you should heare Moses tell you out of his first words that the world was created for the Talmudists for the sixe hundred and thirteene precepts because hee loued the Israelites more then the other people Againe that hee foresaw the Israelites would receiue the Law but hee is now an Asse saith he which beareth Wine and drinketh water There are in the first verse seuen words which signifie the seuen dayes of the weeke seuenth yeere of rest seuen times seuenth the Iubilee seuentimes seuen Iubilees seuen Heauens seuen lands of Promise and seuen Orbes or Planets which caused Dauid to say I will praise thee seuen times a day There are 28. letters in it which shew the 28. times of the World of which Salomon speaketh Eccles 3.1 There are in it sixe Alephs and therefore the world shall last sixe thousand yeeres So in the second verse The earth was without forme and voyde are two Alephs which shew the world should bee two thousand yeeres voyde now in the third verse are foure Alephs which shew other foure thousand yeeres two of which should bee vnder the Law and two vnder Messias §. II. Their Dreames of Adam NOw for the first man his body saith R. Osia in the Talmud was made of the earth of Babylon his head of the land of Israel his other members of other parts of the world So R. Meir thought hee was compact of the earth gathered out of the whole earth as it is written Thine eyes did see my substance now it is elsewhere written The eyes of the Lord are ouer all the earth There are twelue houres of the day saith R. Aha in the first whereof the earth of Adam or earthly matter was gathered in the second the trunke of his body fashioned in the third his members stretched forth in the fourth his soule infused in the fift hee stood vpon his feet in the sixt hee gaue names to the Creatures in the seuenth Eue was giuen him in marriage in the eighth they ascended the bed two and descended foure in the ninth hee receiued the Precept which in the tenth he brake and therefore was iudged in the eleuenth and in the twelfth was cast out of Paradise as it is written Man continued not one night in honour The stature of Adam was from one end of the world to the other and for his transgression the Creator by laying on his hand lessened him for before faith R. Eleazar with his head he reached a reacher indeed the verie firmament His language was Syriacke or Aramitish saith R. Iuda and as Reschlakis addeth the Creator shewed him all generations and the wise-men in them His sinne after R. Iehuda was heresie R. Isaac thinketh the nourishing his fore-skin He knew or vsed carnall filthinesse with all the beasts which GOD brought vnto him before Eue was made as some interpret R. Eleazar and R. Salomon but Reuchline laboureth to purge them of that sense who affirmeth that hee had an Angell for his Master or Instructor and when he was exceedingly deiected with remorse of his sinne GOD sent the Angell Raziel to tell him that there should be one of his progenie which should haue the foure letters of Iehouah in his name and should expiate originall sinne And heere was the beginning of their Cabala and also presently hereupon did hee and Eue build an Altar and offer sacrifice The like offices of other Angels they mention to other Patriarchs and tell that euery three moneths are set new watches of these watchmen yea euery three houres yea and euery houre is some change of them And therefore wee may haue more fauour of them in one houre then another for they follow the disposition of the starres so said the Angell Samael which wrestled with him vnto Iacob Let mee goe for the day breaketh for his power was in the night But let me returne to Adam of whom they further tell that he was an Hermaphrodite a man-woman hauing both Sexes and a double bodie the Female part ioyned at the shoulders and backe parts to the Male their countenances turned from each other This is proued by Moses his words So GOD created man
writ seuen bookes reconciling these Sect ries and the Lawyers together which reconciliation continued till the comming of the Tartars and Asia and Afrike was full of these Reformers of their Law In old time none but learned men might be admitted Professors hereof but within these last hundred yeeres euery ignorant Idiot professeth it saying That learning is not necessary but the holy Spirit doth reueale to them which haue cleane hearts the knowledge of the truth These contrary to the Alcoran sing loue-songs and dances with some phantasticall extasies affirming themselues to be rauished of diuine loue These are great gluttons they may not marry but are reputed Sodomites The same our Author writeth of some which teach that by good workes fasting and abstinence a man may attaine a Nature Angelicall hauing his minde so purified that he cannot sinne although he would But he must first passe through fifty degrees of Discipline And although he sinne before hee be past these fifty degrees yet GOD doth not impute it to him These obserue strange and inestimable Fasts at the first after they liue in all pleasures of the world Their rule was written in foure volumes by a learned and eloquent man Esschrauar and by Ibnul-farid another Author in exact and most learned Verse That the Spheres Elements Planets and Starres are one God and that no Faith nor Law can be erroneous because that all men in their mindes intend to worship that which is to bee worshipped And they beleeue that the knowledge of GOD is contained in one man who is called Elcorb elected and partaker of GOD and in knowledge as GOD. There are other forty men amongst them called Elauted that is Dunces because of their lesse knowledge When the Elcorb or Elcoth dyeth his Successour is chosen out of these and into that vacant place of the fortie they chuse one out of another number of seuentie They haue a third inferiour number of a hundred threescore and fiue their Title I remember not out of which they chuse when any of the threescore and tenne die Their Law or Rule enioyneth them to wander through the World in manner of Fooles or of great Sinners or of the vilest amongst men And vnder this cloke many are most wicked men going naked without hiding their shame and haue to deale with women in the open and common streets like beasts Of this base sort are many in Tunis and farre more in Egypt and most of all in Cairo I my selfe saith our Author in Cairo in the street called Bain Elcasraim saw one of them with mine eyes take a beautifull Dame comming out of the Bath and laid her downe in the middest of the street and carnally knew her and presently when hee had left the woman all the people ranne to touch her clothes because a holy man had touched them And they said that this Saint seemed to doe a sinne but that hee did it not Her husband knowing of it reckoned it a rare fauour and blessing of GOD and made solemne feasting and gaue almes for that cause But the Iudges which would haue punished him for the same were like to bee slaine of the rude multitude who haue them in great reputation of sanctitie and euery day giue them gifts and presents There are another sort that may be termed Caballists which fast strangely not doe they eate the flesh of any creature but haue certaine meates ordained and appointed for euery houre of the day and night and certain particular praiers according to the dayes and months numbring their said Prayers and vse to carry vpon them some square things painted with Characters and Numbers They affirme that the good Spirits appeare and acquaint them with the affayres of the world An excellent Doctor named Boni framed their rule and prayers and how to make their squares and it seemeth to me who haue seene the worke to be more Magicall then Cabalasticall One booke sheweth their prayers and fastings the second their square the third the vertue of the fourescore and ninteene names of GOD which I saw in the hand of a Venetian Iew at Rome There is another rule in these Sects called Suuach of certaine Hermites which liue in Woods and solitary places feeding on nothing but hearbs and wilde fruites and none can particularly know their life because of this solitarinesse Thus farre Leo. Beniamin Tudelensis telleth of a Nation neere to Mount Libanus which hee calleth Hhassissin which varied from the ordinary sort of Ismalites and followed a peculiar Prophet of their owne whose word they obeyed whether for life or for death They called him Hheich al Hhassissin his abode was at Karmos They were a terror to all about them sawing asunder euen the Kings if they tooke any They warred with the Frankes the Christians which then held Ierusalem and the King of Tripolis Their dominion extended eight dayes iourney Zachuth mentioneth one Baba which about the 630. yeere of the Hegira fained himselfe a Prophet sent of God vnder which colour hee gathered together a great Armie wherewith he filled all Asia with slaughter and spoile slaying Christians and Ismaelits without difference till Giatheddin King of Gunia ouerthrew and destroyed him and his Host Besides the former they haue other Heremites of another sort one is mentioned by Leo who had fiue hundred Horse a hundred thousand Sheepe two hundred Beeues and of offerings and almes betwixt foure and fiue thousand Duckets his fame great in Asia and Afrike his Disciples many and fiue hundred people dwelling with him at his charges to whom he enioyneth not penance nor any thing but giueth them certaine names of God and biddeth them with the same to pray vnto him so many times a day When they haue learned this they returne home he hath a hundred Tents for strangers his Cattell and Family hee hath foure wiues besides slaues and by them many children sumptuously apparrelled His fame is such that the King of Telensin is afraide of him and he payeth nothing to any such veneration haue they towards him reputing him a Saint Leo saith hee spake with him and that this Heremite shewed him Magick-bookes and he thought that this his great estimation did come by false working of the true science so the Heremite termed Magicke But these Heremites we cannot so well reckon a Sect as a Religious Order of which sort there are diuers in these Mahumetane Nations as in our ensuing discourse shall appeare To returne therefore to the consideration of the meanes vsed to preuent the varietie of Sects among them The Caliphs sought to remedie these inconueniences by their best policie Moaui about the yeere of our Lord 770. assembled a generall Councell of their learned men to consult about an Vniformity but they disagreeing among themselues hee chose six men of the most learned and shut them vp in a house together with their Scriptures commanding them that out of those Copies disagreeing as you haue heard they should
by Pedro Teixera and Abraham Zacut a Iew published by Ioseph Scaliger The Author by birth an Egyptian hath beene exact in relating the Times and Acts of all Egyptian Gouernours which with other things too long for an abridgement and not so pertayning to the generall knowledge of that Historie of their Religion and Empire I haue omitted yet scrupulously rendring those things which I thought fitting for that my scope or satisfaction of any not exceedingly curious Reader I confesse had the Booke comne to my hand in time this as the other Tractates of Sir Ierome Horsey and Master Methold had beene published with my Pilgrimes yea that Muhammedan part of my Pilgrimage was passed the Presse before this came to my hand although euen for Religions sake this is not vnfit here And for Religions sake I haue beene Religious in keeping the foot-prints of their Religion in the Phrases vsed by the Authour of Muhammed or any other of his Sword-saints stiling his memory glorious others happy indeed odious and pestiferous because the Authour so speaketh in other things also obseruing his words euen as Saint Luke mentioneth Heathenish Names and Deuotions of Mars Castor Pollux Iupiter Mercury or other prodigies of Ethnike Superstition Let their Shewes and Deuotions in a false Religion prouoke vs to emulate the Truth with greater Zeale lest our lukewarmenesse also cause vs to be spewed out of Christs mouth for withholding the truth in vnrighteousnesse the true cause why one Age brought into the World those hypocriticall Chalifas and these Vicars the one by Muhammeds Midwifery gladio oris and the other by that of Phocas ore gladij those with a forcing Temporall Sword these with a forged Spirituall made of the Keyes turned into Picklocks to set the World in so manifold combustions whiles one seekes a thousand yeeres together to thrust the Church out of all the World the other to bring all the World vnto their Pontificall Pompificall Cacolicke not into the true Catholike Church in the communion of Saints And if the Saracenicall and Papall History were well knowne the mysteries of S. Iohns Apocalypse might receiue greater light then that want hath yet permitted So vsefull is this kind of knowledge to generall Learning and to the summ of all Diuinity THE SARACENICALL HISTORY CONTAINING THE ACTS OF THE MVSLIMS FROM MVHAMMED TO THE RAIGNE OF ATABACaeVS IN the Succession of forty nine Emperours Written in Arabike by GEORGE ELMACIN Sonne of ABVLIASER ELAMID the Sonne of ABVLMACAREM the Sonne of Abultib In the Name of God mercifull mercy-shewing in whom is my helpe PRaysed in all Languages be the holy God glorified in the height of his Throne of all creatures distinct in necessity of Essence from euery thing being separated by the admirablenesse of Names and noblenesse of Attributes superexcellent in power and greatnesse of Maiestie aboue all comparison in his strength greatnesse and immensitie I wil prayse him with thanksgiuing for benefits giuen and gifts abundantly bestowed HAuing read the History of that learned and famous man Muhamed Abugiafar Son of Giarir the Tabarite of happy memory and seeing the narrations and allegations very prolixe hauing also read the abridgement thereof by the learned Kemaluddin and many other Briefes I gathered a History out of them contracting the words but retayning the things and order omitting no case or exploit of moment beginning with the beginner of Islamisme of glorious memory rehearsing his birth genealogy and acts till he fled to Medina and after that his warres victories and fortune till his death I proceed in order with the orthodoxall Chaliph's obseruing the course of times and yeeres adding the Kings of other Prouinces and the occurrents of their times according to the computation of the Hegira vnto the Reigne of Sultan Rucnuddin the Holy King of happy memory THe first Emperor of the Muslemans was Muhammed Abulcasim of glorious memory Muhammed Abulcasim saith Muhammed Abugiafar first manifested and obserued the Religion of Islamisme hee was Sonne of Abdalla which was the Sonne of Abdulmutalib the Sonne of Hasiem the Sonne of Abdumenaf His Mothers name was Emina the Daugter of Waheb Sonne of Abdumenaf Now Muhammed of glorious memory was borne in the stonie Valley of the Citie of Mecca early on a Munday morning the eighth of the former moneth Rab in the 882. yeere of Alexander the Great His Father dyed two moneths before he was borne his Mother when he was sixe yeeres old His Grandfather Abdulmutalib brought him vp till he was eight yeeres old and then dyed aged 110. yeeres after which he was educated by his Vncle Abutalib When hee was fortie yeeres old he was called to the Propheticall office on Munday the second of the former Rab in the 922. of Alexander the Great which was the twentieth of the Raigne of Cosroas Sonne of Hormisda Sonne of Nusierwan The first that beleeued in his Prophesie was Chadigia his Vncles Daughter the next was his seruant Zeid Sonne of Harith and after him Ali the Sonne of Abutalib all of happy memory After them were added Abubecr with fiue others all which were called by him to Islammisme viz. Otsman Sonne of Affan Zubeir Sonne of Awam Abdurrahman Sonne of Aufi Saad Sonne of Abuwaccas and Obeidalla Sonne of Algiarab These nine were the first which entred Islamisme In the foure and fortieth yeere of his age he manifested his vocation for before hee only inuited men priuily to Islamisme And publishing his vocation he commanded to beleeue in God alone and him to worship and adore he destroyed Idolatry commanded Circumcision established the Fast of the moneth Ramadan the fiue Prayings Cleannesse Pilgrimage to the Temple of Mecca that Bloud should not be eaten nor that which dyeth alone nor Swines flesh And those which obserued not these things he vexed with warre and fought against them The Christians also came to him both Arabs and others and hee receiued them into his fidelity giuing them a writing of Securitie So also the Iewes Magi and Pagans and others which performed to him oath of fidelity obtained of him free libertie but on condition to pay tribute and poll-monie He commanded also to beleeue the truth of the Prophets and Apostles and of the Bookes sent to them Also that Christ the Sonne of Mary is the Spirit of God and his Word and Apostle and he approued the Gospell and the Law of Moses The Coraisites would not consent touching these things but resisted him valiantly and defied him But his Vncle Abutalib assisted him and forbade that any man should approch to him with a Sword In the fifth yeere Omar the Sonne of Alchittabi of happy memory beleeued and confirmed the other Muslims with his faith they were then 39. and himselfe was the 40. In the eighth yeere the Coraisites writ a Decree that the children of Hasiem should not make league or be mixed with the children of Almutalib and hanged it in the Temple of Mecca In the tenth
where on the weeke dayes they cannot haue occasion or company for publique prayers therfore if they read only the Seruice on holy dayes and neuer studie for more which I would it were not the idle practise of some euen the Heathen shall rise vp in iudgement against them I subscribe with hand and practice to our Liturgie but not to such Lethargie whose darkenesse is so much the more intollerable in this Sun-shine of the Gospell wherein wee haue a gracious King so diligent a frequenter of Sermons and Reuerend Bishops notwithstanding other their weighty Ecclesiasticall employments yet diligent Preachers The studious of Geographie may somewhat be helped in that kinde not that we intend an exact Geographie in mentioning euery Citie with the degrees of Longitude and Latitude but yet limiting euery Countrie in his true situation and bounds and performing happily more then some which take vpon them the title of Geographers as their chiefe profession and more then any which I know hath done in our language He which admireth and almost adoreth the Capuchine Iesuite or other Romanists for selfe-inflicted whippings fastings watchings vowes of obedience pouertie and single life and their not sparing their limmes and liues for their will-worships may see in all these the Romanists equalled by Heathens if not out-stripped euen by the reports of the Iesuites and other their Catholiques Bodily exercise profiteth little but Godlinesse is profitable vnto all and hath the promise of this life and that which is to come Here also the Reader may see most of their Popish Rites deriued out of Chaldean Egyptian and other Fountaines of Paganisme as in the later taske we shall haue more occasion to shew Heere euery English man may see cause to praise God continually for the light of his truth communicated to vs whereas it is in comparison but a small part of the World that soundeth the sacred name of Iesus and of those that professe it how infinit are the sects and superstitions God hath shewed his Word vnto our IACOB THE DEFENDER OF HIS FAITH his Statutes and his Iudgements vnto this ISRAEL of Great Brittaine Hee hath not dealt so with euery Nation neither haue the Heathen nor scarcely if scarcely any other Christian Nation so much knowledge of his iudgements And yet how seditious are some how prophane are others how vnthankfull the most That beastly Sinne of Drunkennesse that biting Sinne of Vsurie that Deuillish Sinne of Swaggering ruffling in deformitie of clothes like monstrous Chimaeras and barking out a multiformitie of oathes like hellish Cerberi as if men could not be Gallants vnlesse they turned Deuils These are the paiments wee returne vnto the Lord in stead of prayers for and loyaltie to his Maiestie peaceablenesse and charitie to each others modestie and sobrietie in our selues For the forme I haue sought in some places with varietie of phrase in all with varietie of matter to draw thee along with mee in this tedious Pilgrimage Some names are written diuersly according to the differing Copies which I followed which thy discretion will easily conceiue I doe not in euery question set downe my censure sometimes because it were more then needes sometimes because of the difficultie I mention Authors sometimes of meane quality for the meanest haue sence to obserue that which themselues see more certainly then the contemplations and Theorie of the more learned I would also acknowledge the labour of the meanest I haue laboured to reduce Relations to their first Authors setting their names to their Allegations the want whereof hath much troubled mee whilst the most leaue out their Authors as if their owne assertion were sufficient authoritie in things borrowed I haue to my great paines contracted and Epitomized whole Volumes and some very large into one Chapter a thing vsuall through these Relations Where I haue found plentifull discourse for Religion my chiefe aime I am shorter in other Relations and where I haue had lesse helpes for that discouerie I insist more on the wonders of Nature and discoueries by Sea and Land with other remarkeable accidents These Rarities of Nature I haue sometimes suted in a differing phrase and figure of speech not that I affect a fantasticall singularitie but that these Diuine workes might appeare in Robes if not fitting their Maiestie yet such as our Word-Robe did willingly without any great affectation or studie affoord not without example of the Scripture which vseth to bring in the mute Creatures speaking and performing as it were other personall offices nor without this effect to make the Reader stay a while with obseruation and wonder besides that variety of it selfe is delightsome If any mislike the fulnesse in some places and the barrennesse of words in others let them consider we handle a World where are Mountaines and Vallies fertile habitations and sandy desarts and others steps whom I follow hold me sometimes in a narrower way which elsewhere take more libertie I touch here and there a Controuersie both for illustration of Historie and in season and out of season to shew my affectation to the Truth Now if any man thinke that it were better these rotten bones of the passed and stinking bodies of the Present superstitions were buried then thus raked out of their graues besides that which hath beene said I answere That I haue sufficient example in the Scriptures which were written for our learning to the ends of the World and yet depaint vnto vs the vgly face of Idolatry in so many Countries of the Heathens with the Apostasies Sects and Heresies of the Iewes as in our first and second booke is shewed and the Ancient Fathers also Iustin Tertullian Clemens Irenaeus Origen and more fully Eusebius Epiphanius Philastrius and Augustine haue gone before vs in their large Catalogues of Heresies and false Opinions I appeale vnto any indifferent Reader for some not Readers nor indifferent I respect not whose Authoritie perhaps would be but indifferent if they must first win it by being Authors of so big I dare not say so great volumes if there be any either Idolatries or other impieties in this worke of mâ—ne expressed beyond theirs which heere out of the Scriptures are mentioned Stewes in the Temple humane Sacrifices to Moloch Tamuz his mourning Sodomites Incests with other fleshly worldly beastly Deuillish monstâ—â—s of iniquitie obtruded vnder Religions Sacred Mantle amongst the Amorites Egyptians and Iewes before the comming of Christ or greater darkenesse and more hellish then when the Light it selfe was made manifest and the Darknesse comprehended it not Herods butcheries Iudas his treacherie the blasphemies of the Scribes Priests and Pharises and the crucifying of the Sonne of God by men for men or since if as stinking loathsome monstrous abuses haue 〈◊〉 beene offered to the Christian Name in worse impostures and pollutions by the Nicholaitans and other incarnat Deuils recorded by those Fathers and other Ecclesiasticall Authors then any of those heere in this booke obserued to which if that which
feare loue beleeue and serue him and then GOD will teach the humble his way and They which will doe his will shall know of his doctrine This is our way to eternall life thus to know him and whom he hath sent Iesus Christ if namely we so learne Christ as the Truth is in Iesus if we become fooles that we may be wise and putting off the old man be renued in the spirit of our minds and put on the new man which after GOD is shapen in righteousnesse and true holinesse Otherwise we know nothing as we ought to know otherwise we know nothing more nor so much as the Deuils know The feare of the Lord is the beginning of this wisedome And for this cause hath he called himselfe and proclaimed those his Names IEHOVA Iehoua strong mercifull and gracious slow to anger and abundant in goodnesse and truth c. and the like in other places not that we may know to know a foolish curiositie but that hauing such light we may beleeue and walke in the light that we may be children of the light Iehoua if we may so name it the most essentiall and after the Iewish tradition ineffable name of GOD is not therefore onely reuealed vnto vs that we may know him in himselfe and of himselfe to bee Yesterday to day and the same for euer which is which was which is to come but also as the Creator of whom in whom and for whom are all things and as the Redeemer which is knowne by his Name Iehoua as himselfe interpreteth it by giuing a reall being and accomplishment to his promises In which one name as in others of like signification is expressed the Simplicitie Immutabilitie Infinitenesse Blessednesse Eternitie Life Perfection and other Attributes of GOD. When he calleth himselfe Strong therein is declared his almighty power whether we vnderstand it actually in producing and preseruing all things in Heauen and earth or absolutely whereby he is able to doe euen those things which in his wisedome he doth not whereby he is able to doe all things which either in themselues as implying contradiction or with him as imperfections are not impossible both those kinds not excluding but concluding the power of GOD which because he is Almightie cannot lie or denie himselfe What should I speake of his Wisedome whereby all things are open in his sight both himselfe and his creatures past present or to come and that not as past or future but in one eternall perfect certaine immediate act of knowledge which in regard of second causes are necessary or contingent or in effect but meerely possible and neuer actually subsisting Truth is in him as a roote from whence it is first in the being next in the vnderstanding thirdly in the writing or saying of the creature True he is in himselfe in his workes ordinary and extraordinary and in his Word reuealed by the Prophets and Apostles What should I adde of his goodnesse grace loue Mercie Iustice and other his Attributes and names not yet mentioned as Adonai which signifieth the dominion of GOD due to him by Creation by purchase by mutuall couenant Saddai which signifieth his All-sufficiencie and others Yea in one Chapter Petrus Galatinus rehearseth threescore and twelue names of GOD out of the Rabbines workes multiplyed and diuersified in tenne sorts which make in all seuen hundred and twenty names To dilate of these at large would aske so many large Commentaries and yet euen then should we still find this GOD incomprehensible of whom we may in respect of our capacitie rather say what he is not then what he is whose goodnesse is not to bee distinguished by qualitie or his greatnesse discerned by quantitie or his eternitie measured by time or his presence bounded by place of whom all things are to bee conceiued beyond whatsoeuer we can conceiue The Persons which communicate in this Diuine Nature are three This is their owne witnesse of themselues There are three which beare record in Heauen the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are one This mystery was manifested in the baptisme of Christ and in our Baptisme in the name of the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost The Angels vnto this glorious Trinitie sing their Holy Holy Holy the Scripture it selfe applying that which there may be interpreted of the Father both to the Sonne Ioh. 12.41 and to the Spirit Act. 28.25 These with other places doe also signifie their personall distinction The Creation was not onely the Fathers worke but also of the other Persons as appeareth by that Nowne plurall ioyned to a Verbe singular in the first word of Moses and other like plurall appellations Es 44.24 and Es 54.5 2. Sam. 7.23 and many such places The Apostles apply the couenant worship and workes of GOD mentioned in the Old Testament To the Sonne and Holy Ghost in the New neither can the one be the Sonne or the other the Spirit of GOD naturally and in proper manner of speech but they must also subsist in the same Nature with the Father which being infinite spirituall immutable can be but one which must wholly or not at all be communicated In a word the equalitie the names the properties the works the worship peculiar to GOD are applyed to the Sonne and Holy Ghost equally with the Father Which they that list may learne in such as especially treat of this subiect where this mysterie of the Trinitie is auerred against all Heretikes Iewes and Infidels Yea by some also out of their owne authentike Authors whether they receiue Scriptures Rabbins Philosophers or any other I intend onely to anoint the doore-posts of this house with this Discourse that I may make a fitter entry thereinto leauing the fuller handling of this mysterie to such as purposely frame their whole Edifice with large Common-places hereof which yet alway must be more certainely receiued by Faith then conceiued by reason according to that of IVSTIN MARTYR Vnitas in Trinitate intelligitur Trinitas in Vnitate noscitur id vero quomodo fiat nec alios scrutari velim nec ipse mihi possum satisfacere Thinke of one a threefold light will dazell thee distinguish into three and an infinite Vnitie will swallow thee Vnus si dici debet Vnissimus saith Bernard Hauing thus with trembling hand written of that dreadfull Mysterie of the Trinitie of which we may say Cum dicitur Non dicitur It is not told with telling nor can be described by description The next to be considered are the Works of GOD which are either inward and immanent or outward and transient The inward are eternall and vnchangeable indeed no other but himselfe although accounted and called workes in regard of their effects in the World and of our conceiuing For all the proprieties of GOD are infinite as they are immanent in himselfe yet in
whether she had not yet experience of the Nature of the Creatures or did admire so strange an accident and would satisfie her curious mind in the further tryall entertained discourse and was presently snared For though she held her to the Commandement yet the threatning annexed she did somewhat mince and extenuate What she seemed to lessen he feared not to annihilate and wholly disanull propounding not onely impunity but aduantage That they should be as Gods in the enriching of their minds with further knowledge This hee perswadeth by the equivocating in the name of the Tree the first equiuocation we read of otherwhere plainely tearmed a lye charging GOD with falshood and malignitie Thus he that abode not in the Truth himselfe but was a Man-slayer from the beginning and the Father of Lying which he no where else borrowed but had of his owne perswaded her by his great subtiltie first to doubt of GODS Truth in his Word the first particular sinne that euer mans heart entertained for the other were but occasions and inducements disobedience and vnthankefulnesse are more generall after that she vnlawfully lusted after this new knowledge bewitched with the pleasantnesse of the fruit to the taste and sight shee tooke and did eate and gaue to her husband likewise The highest power of the soule is first entrapped the lusting and sensible faculties follow after iustly plagued by a correspondent inward rebellion that the sense now ruleth the appetite and this the reason in our corrupt estate which hence proceeded Thus vnbeleefe brought forth vnthankefulnesse vnthankefulnesse pride from thence ambition and all that rabble of contempt of Gods Truth beleeuing the Deuils lies abuse of the Creatures to wanton lust Sacrilegious vsurping that which GOD had reserued scandalous prouocation of her husband with the murther bodily and ghostly of him her selfe and their whole posteritie for euer and whereas yet they had done so little seruice to GOD they offered almost their first fruits to the Deuill hauing Free-will to haue resisted if they would No maruell then if such a combination of so many sinnes in one wrung from the iustice of GOD such a multitude of iudgements on them and theirs in the defacing that goodly and glorious Image of GOD subiecting in stead thereof the Bodie to Sickenesse Colde Heate Nakednesse Hunger Thirst Stripes Wounds Death the Minde to Ignorance Doubtings Vanitie Phancies Phrenzies the Will to Vnstaiednesse Passion Perturbations the Whole Man is made a slaue to Sinne within him to the Deuill without whence he must expect Wages sutable to his Worke Death Spirituall Naturall and Eternall an infinite punishment for offending an infinite Maiesty Thus had they put out their light to obscure darkenesse and if they were not presently cast into vtter darkenesse it was GODS mercy not their merit which suspended the first and naturall death to preuent that second and eternal But spiritually the were euen already dead in sinnes as appeared by the accusations of their conscience whereof Moses saith The eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked Conscience before Vertues keeper was now become Hels Harbenger then flashing lightnings in the face of their minds to shew that their nakednesse did now appeare filthy in GODS sight Lightnings indeed which could only lighten to terrifie not enlighten with instruction and comfort which sparke remaineth after the fire of Gods Image extinct by the mercifull prouidence of GOD in some to bee a bridle of Nature least they should runne into all excesse of vilanie and not leaue a face of the world in the world and to be to others by disposition and working of a higher and supernaturall Light a preparatiue to and a preseruatiue in that light of Life So much the greater is their sinne that seeke to flash out these flashings and whereas they cannot reade the booke of Scripture and will not reade the booke of the Creature labour to extinguish also this Light of Nature that with seared consciences they may more freely in darkenesse commit the workes of darkenesse And euen this did Adam seeke if GOD had not brought him out of his Owles neast For what could a Fig-leafe hide from GOD and did they thinke the innocent Trees would conspire with them to conceale Traytors Was there any darkenesse which was not Light to him Or could Breeches and Trees couer their Soules which receiued the first and worst nakednesse till which Nakednesse to the body was a Clothing of Beauty a Liuery of Bounty an Ensigne of Maiesty Such broken pits seeke they that forsake the Fountaine of liuing Waters And yet when GOD commeth into Iudgement and makes the winds to vsher him vnto his priuate Sessions in Paradise to those shiftlesse shifts they added worse impiously accusing GOD vncharitably charging one another to put from themselues that blame which thus claue faster to them A medicine worse then the disease or a disease in stead of a medicine is hypocrisie that will not see her owne sickenesse and seekes rather to couer then to cure to couer by charging others then recouer by discharging and discouering it selfe as if equitie pretended were not iniquitie doubled GOD proceedeth to sentence a sentence worthy of GOD shewing at once his infinite iustice in the punishment of sinne and no lesse infinite mercie to prouide an infinite price to redeeme vs by his infinite power bringing good out of euill and by his manifold Wisedome taking that wise one in his craftinesse who in the destruction of Man had sought GODS dishonour So good is it that euill should be when this Soueraigne goodnesse purposeth to effect his good will by wicked instruments out of their darkenesse producing his owne maruellous light as appeared in this worke of Sathan an aduersary intended to his despite in and by the promised Seede disposed to his glory The Serpent hath a bodily curse in his future bodily difficulties which still continue for his instrumentall and bodily imployment The old Serpent and spirituall Enemie hath a spirituall and eternall curse the breaking of his head by that Seede of the Woman that should once lead Captiuitie captiue Our Parents are cursed yet so as their curse is turned into a blessing all things working to the best In sorrow shal be the Womans conceptions but recompenced with the ioy which followeth and is as it were the Mid-wife in their trauell because of fruit borne into the World and more then recompenced in that they are saued by bearing of children if they continue in the faith and liue in holinesse with modestie Adam is set to labour not as before with delight but with paine and difficultie the Earth also being cursed for his sake yet by this narrow way by this crosse-way he is guided to Heauen the hope whereof was giuen him before Paradise was taken from him So true is it that in iudgement he remembreth mercy if we can learne to liue
they his peculiar In Iewrie was GOD knowne his Name was great in Israel In Salem was his Tabernacle and his dwelling in Sion And Christ himselfe ratified it acknowledging himselfe sent to the lost sheepe of the house of Israel a Minister of the Circumcision and said to the Cananite woman which besought him for her daughter It is not good to take the childrens bread and to cast it to Dogs Such in spirituall reputation before GOD were all people excluded as vncleane Dogs out of his heauenly Ierusalem till this partition wall was taken downe and they which had beene farre off were made neere by the bloud of Christ who abrogated through his flesh that hatred and made of twaine Iewes and Gentiles one new man in himselfe So that the Gentiles the name of all the World excepting this people which had beene without Christ and aliants from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the Couenants of promise had no hope and were without GOD in the world were now no more strangers and forreiners but Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of GOD built vpon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Iesus Christ himselfe being the chiefe corner stone Let it not bee tedious to heare of this which the Angels reioyced to learne a Mysterie which from the beginning of the world had beene hid in GOD and vnto Principalities and Powers in heauenly places was made knowne by the Church But the Word whereby we haue fellowship in this mysterie came out of Sion and the preaching began at Ierusalem This and not Rome by the confession of Espensaeus a learned Papist was Emporium fidei Christiana Ecclesiae Mater The Mart of Christian faith and Mother of the Church Yea it was necessarie that the Word of GOD should first be spoken vnto them which they by incredulitie put from themselues and gaue place to the Gentiles The fall of them became the riches of the World and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles as a Glasse wherein we may behold the bountifulnesse and seueritie of GOD and in both the deepnesse of the riches of the wisedome and knowledge of GOD whose Iudgements are vnsearchable and his wayes past finding out I may fitly compare them to Gideons Fleece which receiued the dew when all the Earth besides was drie and after it was drie vpon the Fleece onely when the dew couered all the ground Sometimes they alone receiued all those Dewes Showers Riuers Seas of sauing Bountie and all the world besides was a parched wildernesse Now he turneth the fruitfull Land into barrennesse for the wickednesse of the Inhabitants but that Wildernesse he turneth into Pooles of water and the drie Land into water-springs Hee hath called them his people which were not his people and her beloued which was not beloued and where it was said Yee are not my people there they are now called the children of the liuing GOD. Thus hath hee shut vp all vnder vnbeliefe that he might haue mercy vpon all that his free election might appeare not of works lest any should boast themselues but of grace Behold therefore all Atheists and wonder The Iewes branded with iudgement wander ouer the World the contempt of Nations the skum of People the hissing derision and indignation of men for refusing Him whom they expect denying Him whom they challenge hating Him whose Name is in life and death vnto them the sweetest tune and most melodious harmonie still wayting for and glorying in that Messias whom vnknowne they crucified and slue and still pursue with the deadliest hatred in all his followers GOD they please not and are contrarie to all men Yet such is GODS manifold wisedome in his deepest Iudgements that his enemies shall fight for him euen against themselues the Midianites shall sheathe their swords which they haue drawne out against GOD in their owne bowels and Christian Truth shall preuaile and let our enemies themselues be iudges Out of their premisses which they maintayne as earnestly as thou O Atheist securely deridest which they will seale with that which thou makest thy heauen thy GOD we will and doe conclude against thee and them that in which with which for which we will liue and die Let the old Testament yeeld the Proposition in prophesie and the new Testament assume in Historie and euen be thou the Iudge if that Reason which thou hast as a man and peruertest as a Deuill will not by force of their scriptures which they preferre before their liues necessarily in the conclusion demonstrate the Christian Truth Neither I appeale vnto our common Reason canst thou more wonder at vs for beleeuing things in thy seeming incredible absurd and impossible then at them vpon such grounds which with vs they hold not beleeuing For what beleeue we but for the maine and chiefe points of our Faith are as plainly in their Euangelicall Prophets as in our Propheticall Euangelists All the Historie of Christ in a more diuine way seemeth rather told then foretold a Historie not a Prophesie as is easie by conference of both to shew and thou if thou beest not idle or wilfully malicious mayest finde That then which thou seest come vpon them a spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and eares that they should not heare which yet haue the light of the first Scriptures had they not a veile ouer their hearts the same see in thy selfe that when greater light doth offer it selfe willingly shuttest thine eyes as though there could be no light because thou liuest in and louest thy darknesse It is the same hand that giueth vp both thee and them because yee will not beleeue the Truth to be saued to strong delusions that yee might beleeue lyes and be damned To me and all Christians let the Iewes bee both reall and verball teachers of the Truth which they let fall and we take vp the one in their Oracles of sacred Writ the other in their exemplarie iudgement And to them Let O thou Lord of all heare and grant it let all Christians be that which Moses prophesied a prouocation to emulation not of enuie and hatred which hitherto hath beene in these amongst all the Christian enemies the most implacable and despitefull but of imitation that as their casting away hath beene the reconciling of the World their receiuing may be life from the dead which Paul seemeth plainly to fore-signifie THus much being premised as a preparation to our Iewish Historie which as of more importance then any other deserueth more ample view let vs in the next place suruey that Countrey which their Progenitors had with those priuiledges and their Posteritie together with those priuiledges haue lost This Countrey was first called the Land of Canaan after that the Posteritie of Canaan the sonne of Cham had possessed it Moses and Ioshua conquered it to the Posteritie of Iacob of whom it
and by the glorie and order of them learned the knowledge of GOD neuer ceasing that diuine search till GOD appeared to him Which opinion may reconcile both the former that first he was and after ceased to be an Idolater before God appeared in vision to him He alledgeth Philo for his Author that at fourteene yeeres Abraham reproued Thara for seducing men vnto Idolatrie moued by his priuate lucre with Images and seeing the Heauen sometime cleare sometime cloudie he gathered that that could not bee GOD. The like hee concluded of the Sunne and Moone by their Eclipses for his father had taught him Astronomie At last GOD appeared and bade him leaue his Countrey Whereupon hee tooke his Fathers Images who as before is said was an Image-maker and partly broke partly burnt them and then departed Suidas further thinketh him the first inuenter of Letters of the Hebrew tongue and of the interpretation of dreames which I leaue to the Authors credit But for the fault of Abraham before his calling and other blemishes after in him and the rest of the Patriarchs what doe they else but in abounding of mans sinne set out the superabounding grace of GOD and are profitable as learned Morton in his answere of this cauill hath out of one of their owne obserued against them what he had obserued out of Augustine to these foure purposes Faith Instruction Feare and Hope the Faith of the Historie which flattereth or concealeth the faults of none Instruction to vertue by seeing others faults taxed Feare for what shall Shrubs doe if Cedars fall and Hope that wee imitate their repentance by seeing their pardon But to returne to our Historie Many of the Ethnike histories mention him Berosus commendeth him for his iustice and skill in Astronomie Nic. Damascenus sayth that hee raigned at Damascus and that in his time his house continued in Damascus and was still called by his name Hecataeus wrote a booke of him and Alexander Polyhistor telleth that hee was borne in the tenth generation after the floud in Camarine or Vrien a Citie of Babylon Iosephus addeth that when famine draue him into Aegypt hee disputed with the Priests and most learned Aegyptians in questions of Diuinitie and in their diuided Sects hauing confuted one by another he communicated to them the truth both in this and in Arithmeticke and Astronomie whereof before the Aegyptians were ignorant Abram sayth Master Broughton in his Consent was borne sixtie yeeres later then the common account as appeareth by computation of Terahs age who died at two hundred and fiue yeeres and after his death Abram went from Charan into Canaan the threescore and fifteenth yeere of his owne life and therefore was borne in the hundred and thirtieth and not in the seuentieth yeere of his father in the three hundred fiftie and two yeere after the Floud whereas the common opinion reckoneth the two hundred ninetie and two To Abram GOD had giuen commandement saying Goe from thy Countrey and from thy Kindred and from thy Fathers house into the Land which I shall shew thee and I will make of thee a great Nation c. His Historie is fully related by Moses and his progenie also whereof Ismael his Sonne by Agar and other his sonnes which he had by Ketura his second wife he sent to inhabite the East Countrey Arabia in his life time but Isaac was made his Heire both temporall and spirituall to whom Iacob succeeded in the promised blessing who with his sonnes and familie went downe into Aegypt where his posteritie multiplied exceedingly and were called sometimes Ebrewes of their ancient pedegree sometime Israelites of the name Israel giuen to Iacob by the Angell Gen. 32.28 Their whole Historie so largely and plainely in holy Writ recorded I feare to make Mine by euill reciting Those Fountaines are more open to all then that any should neede ours or others Brookes mixed with some myrie earth at least in the passage and my intent is to bee largest in relation of those things which are not in the Scriptures onely touching those things briefly for order sake Their Religion meane while was the best amongst the best though stayned in some as Rachel which stale her father Labans Idols and Iacob was forced to reforme his Familie in this respect and after in Aegypt they were corrupted with the Aegyptian superstition as Ezechiel protests against them The manner of Diuine worship was not so straitly limited as afterwards to persons and places By Reuelation and Tradition they receiued the religious worship wherein they instructed their posteritie vntill that in their extremest thraldome GOD sent Moses and Aaron to deliuer them vnder whose conduct they passed through the Sea and Wildernesse to the brinkes of Iordan receiuing in the way that Law which as a Tutor or Schoole-master was in that their nonage to traine them vp vntill that full and ripe age when GOD sent his Sonne made of a woman made vnder the Law that hee might redeeme them that were vnder the Law that wee might receiue the adoption of Sonnes §. II. Of the Law of MOSES the twelue Tribes and of Proselytes OF this Law although Moses hath giuen vs an absolute relation in Scripture whereof he was the first Pen-man of that at least which remayneth vnto vs yet if wee shall out of him bring them into their order and ranke them vnder their seuerall heads as Sigonius and others haue done it shall not be I thinke ouer-tedious to the Reader The Law is diuided vsually into the Morall Ceremoniall and Iudiciall as parts of the same the first deliuered on the Mount Sinai by the dreadfull voice of the Almightie God and by the finger of God written after in Tables of stone called Ten words summarily abridged into two Commandements by the Law-giuer himselfe The first and great Commandement enioyning the loue of GOD the second of our NEIGHBOVRS that God who himselfe is Charitie imposing nothing but the louely yoke of Loue and Charitie vnto his seruants This Law is eternall written first in the hearts of our first Parents which being defaced it was written againe in the stonie Tables of the Law where it was but a killing letter till Grace and Truth by IESVS CHRIST indited and indented it in the fleshy Tables of the Gospell as Christs new Commandement written it renewed hearts and shall for euer be then grauen in those spirituall Tables when wee that here are Naturall men shall rise againe Spirituall men and shall be the Law of that holy Citie the new Ierusalem this being then perfected when Faith and Hope and this World shall bee finished The other parts Ceremoniall and Iudiciall were for the particulars proper vnto that Nation the one respecting the manner of Diuine seruice the other of ciuill Gouernment not giuen as the other immediatly to the Israelites by GOD himselfe but communicated in the Mount to Moses that hee might acquaint the
Passeouer Pentecost or Whitsuntide the Feast of Tabernacles These were chiefe to which were added the Feast of Trumpets of Expiation and of the Great Congregation To these we may reckon the seuenth yeeres Sabbath and the yeere of Iubilee These Feasts GOD had prescribed to them commanding that in those three principall Feasts euery male as the Iewes interpreted it that were cleane and sound and from twenty yeeres of their age to fiftie should appeare there where the Tabernacle or Temple was with their offerings as one great Parish Deut. 16. hereby to retaine an vnitie in diuine worship and a greater solemnitie with increase of ioy and charitie being better confirmed in that Truth which they here saw to be the same which at home they had learned and also better strengthened against the errors of the Heathen and Idolatrous feasts of Diuels To these were after added vpon occasions by the Church of the Iewes their foure Feasts in memory of their calamities receiued from the Chaldeans their Feast of Lots of Dedication and others as shall follow in their order They began to celebrate their Feasts at Euen so Moses is commanded From Euen to Euen shall yee celebrate your Sabbath imitated in the Christian Euen-songs on holy Euens yet the Christian Sabbath is by some supposed to begin in the morning because Christ did rise at that time As for the causes of Feasts many they are and great That the time it selfe should in the reuolution thereof be a place of Argument to our dulnesse This is the day which the Lord hath made let vs reioyce and be glad in it And what else is a festiuall day but a witnesse of times light of truth life of memory mistresse of life A token of publike thankfulnesse for greatest benefits passed a spurre to the imitation of our Noble Ancestrie the Christian Worthies a visible word to the Ethnicke and ignorant which thus by what we doe may learne what we beleeue a visible heauen to the spirituall man that in festiuall ioyes doth as it were open the vayle and here fides is turned into a vides whiles in the best exercises of Grace he tasteth the first fruits of Glory and with his Te Deums and Halleluiahs begins that blessed Song of the Lamb whiles time it selfe puts on her festiuall attire and acting the passed admonish the present ages teacheth by example quickneth our Faith strengthneth hope inciteth charitie and in this glimpse and dawning is the day-starre to that Sunne of Eternitie when time shall be no longer but the Feast shall last for euerlasting These the true causes of festiuall Times CHAP. V. Of the Festiuall dayes instituted by God in the Law AS they were enioyned to offer a Lambe in the morning and another in the Euening euery day with other Prayers Prayses and Rites so had the SABBATH a double honour in that kinde and was wholly sequestred and sanctified to religious duties Which howsoeuer it was ceremoniall in regard of that seuenth day designed of the Rites therein prescribed of that rigid and strait obseruation exacted of the particular workes prohibited and of the deadly penaltie annexed yet are we to thinke that the Eternall Lord who hath all times in his hand had before this selected some time proper to his seruice which in the abrogation of Ceremonies Legall is in Morall and Christian duety to be obserued to the end of the World euen as from the beginning of the World he had sanctified the seuenth day to himselfe and in the Morall Law giuen not by Moses to the Iewes but by GOD himselfe as to all creotures is the remembrance of that sanctification vrged Friuolous are their reasons who would renue the Iewish Sabbath amongst Christians tying and tyring vs in a more then Iewish seruitude to obserue both the last and first dayes of the weeke as some haue preached and of the Aethiopian Churches is practised Neither can I subscribe to those who are so farre from paying two that they acknowledge not the debt of one vpon diuine right but onely in Ecclesiasticall courtesie and in regard of the Churches meere constitution and haue thereupon obtruded on many other dayes as Religious respects or more then on this which yet the Apostles entituled in name and practice The Lords day with the same spirit whereby they haue equalled traditions to the holy Scriptures Thus Cardinal Tolet alowes on the Lords day iourneying hunting working buying selling Fayres Fencing and other priuate and publike workes by him mentioned and saith a man is tyed to sanctifie the Sabbath but not to sanctifie it well a new kinde of distinction the one is in hearing Masse and ceasing from seruile workes the well-doing it in spirituall contemplations c. Another Cardinall is as fast as he is loose affirming That other holy daies also binde the Conscience euen in cases voide of contempt and scandall as being truely more holy then other daies and a part of diuine worship and not onely in respect of order and politie But to returne to our Iewish Sabbath Plutarch thought that the Sabbath was deriued of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to keepe Reuell-rout as was vsed in their Bacchanals of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is interpreted Bacchus or the sonne of Bacchus as Coelius Rhodiginus sheweth out of Amphithaeus and Mnaseas who is therefore of opinion That Plutarch thought the Iewes on their Sabbaths worshipped Bacchus because they did vse on that day to drinke somewhat more largely a Sabbatizing too much by too many Christians imitated which celebrate the same rather as a day of Bacchus then the Lords day Bacchus his Priests were called Sabbi of this their reuelling and misse-rule Such wide coniectures we finde in others whereas the Hebrewes call it Sabbath of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth To rest because of their vacation to Diuine Offices and not for idlenesse or worse imployments And for this cause all the festiuall solemnities in the Scripture are stiled with this generall title and appellation as times of rest from their wonted bodily seruices Likewise their seuenth yeere was Sabbathicall because of the rest from the labors of Tyllage In those feasts also which consisted of many daies solemnitie the first and last were Sabbaths in regard of the strictnesse of those daies rest Luke hath an obscure place which hath much troubled Interpreters with the difficulty thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our English reades it The second Sabbath after the first Isidore saith it was so called of the Pascha and Azyma comming together Chrysostome thinkes as Sigonius cytes him it was when the New-Moone fell on the Sabbath and made a double Festiuall Sigonius when they kept their Passeouer in the second Moneth Stella takes it for Manipulus frugum alledging Iosephus his Author Ambrose for the Sabbath next after the first day of the Easter Solemnitie Hospinian for the Octaues or last
for now he had found this signe thereof the Sabbaticall Riuer shewing this Sand in proofe thereof Credit Iudaeus Apella the Iewes beleeue quickly all but the truth especially in Portugall whither he came with this report Many thousand moued by his words remoued their dwellings and selling their substance would needs goe into these parts of Persia by the Sabbaticall Riuer to fixe their habitation there wayting for their promised Messias One and a chiefe of this superstitious Expedition was Amatus Lusitanus a Physician of great note accounted one of the most learned of his Profession and a Writer therein and Iohn Micas a Merchant of great wealth They passed through France Germany Hungary their company like a Snow-ball encreasing as they went with the addition of other Iewes of like credulity When they came to Constantinople there were of them in many Bands or Companies thirty thousand Cabasomi Bassa the Turkish Commander thought to gaine by this occasion and would not suffer them to passe ouer the water into Asia without many hundred thousands of Duckets except they would passe on horse-backe This example was soone both spred and followed of the other Bassaes and Commanders in Asia as they went their wealth and substance being euery where so fleeced that they came into Syria much lessened in numbers in estate miserable and beggerly new Officers euery where as new hungry Flyes lighting on these wretched carkasses so I may call them some they whipped some they empaled some they hanged and burned others Thus were these miserable Pilgrimes wasted and Don Iohn Baltasar was present when Amato aforesaid being dead with this affliction his Physicke bookes were in an Out-cry to be sold at Damasco and because they were in Latine no man would buy them till at last another Iew became Chapman Micas one of the wealthiest men which Europe held dyed poore in an Hospitall at Constantinople And this was the issue of their Pilgrimage to the Sabbaticall streame which they supposed to finde in this Persian Gulfe where wee haue too long holden you the Spectators of this Iewish Tragedie And yet let me intreate your patience a litle longer in considering the occasion of this error We haue elsewhere mentioned this Sabbaticall Riuer now you shall vnderstand that the Iewes generally haue drowned their wits therein Rambam cals it Gozan Genebrard alleageth many R. R. testimonies of it but of all and of all let Eldad Danius his tale which Genebrard hath translated find some fauourable entertainment the rather because one of our Apocryphall Authors seemes to weaue the same webbe which as the worthier person deserueth first examination Esdras therefore so wee suppose him and this is not all his Iewish Fables reporteth that the ten Tribes which Salmanasar led captiue tooke counsell among themselues to leaue the multitude of the Heathen and goe forth into a further Countrey where neuer Mankind dwelt that they might there keepe their statutes which they neuer kept in their owne Lord And they entred into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the Riuer For the most High then shewed signes for them and held still the floud till they were passed ouer For through that Countrey there was a great way to goe namely of a yeere and a halfe and the same Region is called Arsareth Then dwelt they there vntill the latter time And now when they shall begin to come the Highest shall stay the Springs of the streame againe c. Here you see no lesse Miracle then in Iordan or the Red Sea for their passage which seeing it was through Euphrates yee will pardon our Iew for searching it neere this Persian Gulfe especially seeing his good Masters the Rabbins had increased this Tale with the Inclosure of these Iewes from passing againe into our World not by the continuall course of Euphrates as Esdras insinuateth but by the Sabbatising of the Sabbaticall streame which by Eldads description is two hundred cubits ouer full of sands and stones without water making a noyse like thunder as it floweth which by night is heard halfe a dayes Iourney from it On the Sabbath it is continually quiet and still but all that while ariseth thence a flame that none dare enter or come neere by halfe a mile Thus the fire if not the Religion of the Sabbath then detaynes them no lesse then the stony streame on the weeke dayes and what stony heart can refuse them credit Yet doth not hee and Esdras agree of the Inhabitants both deriuing them from the tenne Tribes but Eldad challengeth no lesse antiquitie then from Ieroboam who contending with Rehoboam the godly Catholike Israelites refusing to fight against the house of Dauid chose rather to attempt this Pilgrimage and so passing the Riuer Physon for the Scriptures had forbidden them to meddle with Egypt Ammon or Amalck they went and they went til they came into Ethiopia There did the foure Tribes of Dan Nepthali Gad Aser settle themselues which continually war vpon the seuen Kingdoms of Tusiga Kamtua Koha Mathugia Tacul Bacma and Kacua fie on the simplicity of our Geographers which know not one of these no better then Esdras his Arsareth they haue a King whose name is Huziel Mathiel vnder whom they fight each Tribe three moneths by course The Tribe also of Moses for they imagine his children claue to their Mothers Religion which was a Madianite or Ethiopian is turned to their truth and they all obserue the Talmud the Hebrew Tongue the Ordinances of the Elders and suffer nothing vncleane amongst them Yea no Vtopian State comparable to theirs He tels the like tales of the other Tribes But how came he thence to tell this newes Truely I wonder no lesse then you yet he saith he goe to the Sea forgetting that before he had compassed his Countrey with the Sabbaticall streame and there was taken captiue and by his leanenesse escaping the Canibals else our fat Storie had beene deuoured was sold to a Iew of whom perhaps this forged Tale procured his redemption Howsoeuer the Tradition holds both for these inclosed Iewes and that Sabbaticall streame that it should be sought here-a-wayes or found no where The reciting is sufficient refuting to a reasonable vnderstanding and yet the Iewes are not onely besotted with these their inclosed brethren imagining their Messias may bee amongst them although they know not whether to ascribe this transportation to Salmanaser or to Alexander the Great or to the dayes of Ieroboam but Christians also tell of them about the Pole and they know not where And I haue seene a printed Pamphlet of their comming out of those their Inclosures in our times with the numbers of each Tribe Yea Postellus Boterus and many other deriue the Tartars from them which dreame they which please may reade at large confuted by Master Brerewood It was about the yeere 1238. when Eldad came from thence into Spaine If any lust to haue another Guide for the Sabbaticall streame Master Fullers
gouerned at the same time in seuerall parts of Egypt as in so small a Region as Canaan Ioshua destroyed 31. Kings This Scaliger coniectureth Lydiat affirmeth Neither yet is Scaliger to be blamed for acquainting the World with these fragments of Manetho considering that the middle part therof holdeth not onely likelihood in it selfe but in great part correspondence with the Scriptures If the Egyptians deuised otherwise to Herodotus and Diodorus it was easie for them to deceiue strangers or bee deceiued themselues The like History of prodigious Antiquities Augustine relateth of an Egyptian Priest that told Alexander of the continuance of the Macedonian Kingdome eight thousand yeeres whereas the Grecians accounted but foure hundred and fourescore Yea the Scriptures themselues haue not escaped that mis-reckoning of Times almost all Antiquitie being carried downe the streame of the seuenty Interpreters which adde many hundred yeeres to the Hebrew Text either of purpose as some suppose or as Augustine thinketh by errour of him that first copied the Scriptures out of Ptolemeys Library Sir Walter Raleigh in that his laborious and learned Worke called The History of the World supposeth That Egypt first tooke that name at such time as Aegyptus or Ramesses chased thence his brother Danaus into Peloponnesus which some reckon 877. yeeres after the Floud some more As for the prodigious Antiquities which they challenge hauing refuted Mercator and Pererius he enclineth to this opinion touching their ancient Dynasties that they are not altogether fabulous but that Egypt being peopled before the Floud two hundred yeeres after Adam there might remayne to the sonnes of Mizraim some Monuments in Pillars or Altars of stone or metall of their former Kings or Gouernours which the Egyptians hauing added to the List and Roll of their King after the Floud in succeeding time out of the vanitie of glory or by some corruption in their Priests something beyond the truth might be inserted Petrus Alexandrinus lately set forth in Greeke and Latine by Raderus writes That Mizraim hauing giuen beginning to the Egyptian Nation did after goe into the East to the Persians and Bactrians and is the same that was called Zoroastres by the Greekes Inuenter of Iudiciall Astrologie and Magicke He hauing giuen order for the keeping of the ashes of his burned body as the pledge of the Empire so long to continue with them called vpon Orion which he saith was Nimrod by the Persian Superstition beleeued thus honoured after his death and was consumed with Lightning the Persians reseruing his ashes to this day the cause saith the Note on that place why the Persians worship the fire . Yet the Author mentions another cause from Perseus which kindled fire by Lightning and preseruing the same built a Temple to it Hee saith also That Picus or Iupitar his father taught Perseus to diuine by a Cup like to that which is mentioned of Ioseph in Egypt and the same Picus was father to Hermes or Mercurie King of Egypt with other Legends too long for this place This Mercurie he maketh the same with Faunus the first finder he saith of Gold and that in a golden Vesture he foretold diuers things and that the Egyptians worshipped him hauing before made him their King which place he held thirty nine yeeres After him reigned Vulcan 1680. dayes for at that time the Egyptians knew not to number by yeeres He first made a Law against Adulterie and that the Egyptian women should haue but one husband He was Inuentor of Iron and Armour Stones and Clubs being before that time the only Weapons His sonne Sol succeeded a great Philosopher after him Sosis and next Osiris then Orus Thules Conqueror of Africa and after that Sesostris of the race of Cham the same as he supposeth with Trismegistus Thus much I haue thought here to adde out of him where the Reader may further satisfie himselfe if that can satisfie any which can nothing certifie or make certaine in these Antiquities wherein we may find many opinions scarcly any truth but in the Word of Truth the Scriptures That which we read of the Dynasties of Shepherds Scaliger interpreteth of that baser seruile sort which Moses saith were abominable to the Egyptians and seeme to haue beene strangers that inhabited some fenny places which Nature had fortified if we beleeue Heliodorus and thence made forrages into the Countrey the custome of Borderers and were called therefore Robbers These it seemeth driuen to their shifts by the hard and tyrannous vsage of the Egyptians procured as wee reade of the Tartars their owne Freedome and thraldome of their Lords The Romanes in their times were forced to mayntaine a Garrison against them therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Ierome mentioneth the Bucolia where no Christians dwelled but onely a fierce Nation Iosephus and Eusebius thinke them to bee the Israelites which is vnlikely because they liued in seruitude and neuer raigned there Lydiat supposeth the Philistims vnder Abimelech and Phicol to be the men Nothing is more obscure in the Egyptian Chronologie then the time of the departure of Israelites thence vnder Moses whom Iustin Martyr affirmeth out of Diodorus to haue bin the first that wrote the Egyptian Lawes Tatianus Assyrus who after became an Heretike saith and alledgeth Ptolemey Mendesius a Priest for his Author That this departure was in the dayes of Amasis King of Egypt who liued in the time of Inachus Theophilus and Iosephus out of Manetho in the Reigne of Tethmoses Eusebius in the reigne of Cenchres Cedrenus saith Petisonius Others otherwise according to the diuers interpretation of Manetho The Scripture sheweth it was foure hundred and thirty yeeres from the promise first made to Abraham as all that I know both elder and later Greeke and Latine Chronographers except Genebrard and Adriehomius reckon it Lydiat thinketh That the drowning of the Egyptian Pharo was the cause of those tumults in Egypt about Succession which are ascribed to Egyptus and Danaus Orosius reporteth That the prints of the Chariot-wheeles of the Egyptians then pursuing the Israelites through the Sea did yet in his time remayne in the Sands on the shore and vnder-water which no curiositie or casualtie can so disorder but that Diuine Prouidence doth re-imprint them in their wonted forme Hard it is to apply the yeeres of the Egyptian Chronologie to the true account of the Worlds generation by reason of the disagreement of Authors touching the Egyptian Kings vntill Sesacs time which after Lydiat was in the yeere of the World 3029. although euen from hence we haue but slippery footing Augustus after the same Author made Egypt a Prouince in the yeere 3975. Vnder which Roman gouernment it continued vntill the Saracens conquered it in the time of Omar the third Chalipha who began his reigne after Scaligers computation in his Catalogue of the Chaliphaes in the yeere of Christ 643. The names of the Caesars
Pilgrimage CHAP. VI. Relations of Aethiopia by GODIGNVS and other Authours lately published seeming more credible §. I. The seuerall Countreyes of Abassia Their Situation Inhabitants Riuers and Lakes IF I should haue left out the former Chapter for the vncertaine truth or certayne falshoods therein contayned some perhaps would eyther for the Pilgrims words or the Friers inuention haue desired it were it but as a Comedie to delight our tyred Reader For my selfe had my Intelligence so well serued me at first it had been easier then not to haue admitted then here now to haue omitted it I haue therefore suffered it still to enioy a place rather for your delight then credit and here would giue you those things that are more likely I hope I cannot warrant more true such as Nicolaus Godignus and others haue written some things being the same which before out of Aluares others are mentioned besides other things exacter or later And first of the Countrey it selfe Ioannes Gabriel Captayne of the Portugall Souldiers in these parts hath written that the Abassine Empire contayneth sixe and twentie Kingdomes in ancient right diuided in foureteene Regions eight of these Kingdome lye in successiue order from Swachen towards to West the first of which is Tigrai contayning seuenteene great Tracts vnder so many Lieutenants or Gouernours which rule all affaires of Peace and War The Turkes possesse the Sea parts the Saracens the Coast adioyning the Inland is inhabited promiscuously by Christians and Ethnicks They are blacke of hue deformed in shape in condition miserable of conditions wicked They haue goodly Riuers dryed vp in Summer where yet with little digging both water is found and fishes called Sagasi The next Kingdome to Tigrai is Daneali hauing the Red Sea on the East thence extending Westwards not farre nor fertile inhabited by Moores tributaries to the Abassine Angote Amara Boa Leca are foure Kingdomes inhabited by Christians only The seuenth Kingdome is very large of seuenteene Tracts partly inhabited by Ethnickes partly Christians it is called Abagamedri Dambea hath also Ethnickes mixed with Christians being but two Tracts On the other side of Dancali towards the Red Sea Aucaguerle trends alongst the Coast possessed by the Moores not subiect to the Abassine Adel followeth in twelue degrees Northerly in which is Zeila sometimes called Aualites a famous Mart the whole Kingdome is inhabited by Moores vnneighbourly Neighbours to the Abassines whence came Gradagna or Gradamar the Mahumetan King which had wel-nigh subdued all Aethiopia when the Portugals opposed themselues who after diuers ouerthrowes tooke him and cut off his head After this is Dahali which trendeth towardes Membaxas the Inhabitants some Christians some Ethnikes pay tribute to the Prete Oecie followeth more within land the Inhabitants Moores and Ethnikes subiect to the Abassine Arium and Fatigaer the next Kingdomes are Christian Zinger Ethnicke Rozanagum the sixteenth Kingdome is Christian but not subiect to the Abassine Empire From hence extend other Kingdomes towards the North Roxa of Ethnickes Goma of Christians and Ethnickes Such is Nerea a large Kingdome towards Monomotapa Zethe is inhabited by Ethnickes subiect to the Emperour The next are Conche and Mahaola small and altogether Ethnicke Goroma a great Kingdomoe of twenty Tracts Christians and Heathens almost wholly compassed by Nilus able for plenty to feed many Armies with which it is vsually infestect The Seedman followes the haruest man presently after the reaping sowes new Seed without other tillage The three last Kingdomes lye towards Egypt Damote Sua Iasculum through this euery Lent passe great troupes of Pilgrimes to Ierusalem The foureteene Regions or Prouinces I forbeare to mention Of all these Kingdomes at this day onely Tigrai Abagamedri Dambea and Goroma are obedient to the Abassine There are foure principall Riuers in this Aethiopia Taucea running from the South to the North the sandy Earth in the way continually stealing and vnderearth passages robbing him of the watery Tribute which he intendeth to the Sea neere it are high vnpassable Mountaynes inhabited by Abassine Iewes which still obserue the Mosaicall Law fierce and terrible to their Neighbours and could neuer be conquered by the Abassines The second Riuer is Oara exceeding Nilus in watery store which he bestoweth in like manner on the Countrey by which he passeth into the Zeilan Sea The waters are pleasant but the Abassine Christians will not drinke thereof because passing through the Countries of Mahumetans it yeelds them nourishment The third Riuer is Gabea which neere to Mombaza visits the Ocean The fourth is Nilus There are as many Lakes The first Aicha in Angote The second Dambeabahar that is the Sea of Dambea not farre from Gubbai where the Emperours in these times reside if they betake themselues out of their Tents into the City This Lake is sixty miles long and fiue and twenty broad receiues on one side the waters of Nilus is full of fishes and Riuer-horses which sometimes are dangerous to passengers two Iesuits in one of their Boates made of Rushes hardly escaping their assaults Many small Ilands are in this Lake in one of which is a Towre their Treasury and to which Malefactors are confined The third Lake is Zella in Oecie the fouth Xacala not farre from it §. II. Of the Soyle Fruits Creatures Seasons and Climate ANtonie Fernandes in an Epistle dated here in Iune 1610. numbreth aboue fortie Prouinces in Abassia but in substance agrees in the former The Soyle hee sayth is hollow and full of deepe Clifts in the midst of the plaine fields you shall often see steepe and high Rockes of solid stone which in time of warre serue them in stead of Forts The whole Region is full of Metals but neglected partly by the sloth of the Inhabitants partly for feare to bring Turkish Inuasions vpon them if such baits were discouered They take so much Iron only as they finde without digging on the face of the Earth Corne Herbes Trees are there in variety but these not excellent in their fruits except one the fruit whereof saues their liues by the vertue it hath against Wormes whereto this people is much subiect by their eating of raw flesh and therefore euery moneth purge themselues with this fruit they haue Peaches Pomegranates Citrons Indian Figges but not in great plenty They haue Hares Harts Goats Swine Elephants Camels Buffles Lions Panthers Tigres Rhinocerots and other like Beasts One so huge that a man on horsebacke may passe vpright vnder his belly feeding on leaues from the tops of trees and formed like a Camell Their Riuer-horses doe much harme to the fruits of the Earth being of Vast bodies and their mouth three quarters of a yard in the opening In the night they come forth and if the Husbandmen did not keepe diligent watch would doe extreme harme to the Corne they feed also on grasse In the water they are very fierce and like Dogges assault men and teare them They are so afraid of fire
Deluge in the dayes of Noah drowned not these parts because men had not here inhabited who with a deluge of sinne might procure that deluge of waters AMERICA is a more common then fitting name seeing Americus Vespucius the Florentine from whom this name is deriued was not the first Finder nor Author of that Discouerie Columbus will challenge that and more iustly with whom and vnder whom Americus made his first voyage howsoeuer after that hee coasted a great part of the Continent which Columbus had not seene at the charges of the Castilian and Portugall Kings But so it might more rightly be termed Cabotia or Sebastiana of Sebastian Cabot a Venetian which discouered more of the Continent then they both about the same time first employed by King Henrie the seuenth of England and after by the Catholike King Columbus yet as the first Discouerer deserueth the name both of the Countrey for the first finding and of modestie for not naming it by himselfe seeking rather effects then names of his exploits But leaue we these Italian Triumviri the Genuois Venetian and Florentine to decide this question among themselues And why now is it called the West Indies To this Acosta's exposition of the word Indies that thereby wee meane all those rich Countries which are farre off and strange is too generall an answere and giueth not the true cause of the name Gomara saith that a certaine Pilot of whom Columbus receiued his first instructions tooke it to bee India or else Columbus himselfe thinking by the West to finde a neerer passage vnto the East by reason of the Earths roundnesse sought for Cipango or Iapan and Cathay when he first discouered the Ilands of the New World And this opinion is probable both because hee named Hispaniola Ophir whence Salomon fetched his gold and Sebastian Cabot in the first voyage which he made at the charges of King Henrie the seuenth intended as himselfe confesseth to finde no other Land but Cathay and from thence to turne towards India and the opinions of Aristotle and Seneca that India was not farre from Spaine confirmed them therein Now that we may descend from the Name to the Nature of this New World a World it is to see how Nature doth deflect and swarne from those grounds and principles which the Naturalists and Philosophers her forwardest Schollers haue set downe for Rules and Axiomes of Natures working For if we regard the ancient Poets Philosophers and Fathers we shall see them deceiued and that not in few opinions which they seemed to haue learned in Natures Sanctuaries and in most Closets In the Heauens they supposed a burning Zone in the Earth a Plage plagued with scortching heates Vtque duae dextra Coelum totidemque sinistra Parte secant Zonae quinta est ardentior illis Sic Totidemque plaga tellure premuntur Quarum quae mediae est non est habitabilis astu Nix tegit alta duas totidem inter vtramque locauit Temperiemque dedit And a greater then Ouid Quinque tenent Coelum Zonae quarum vna corusco Semper sole rubens c. The sense whereof is that those parts of the World next the Arctike or Antarctike Poles are not habitable by reason of extreme cold nor the middle part by reason of vnreasonable heate the two other parts temperate and habitable The Philosophers accounted this no Poeme or rather were more Poeticall themselues For that which those accounted a Torrid and scortched earth these made to bee a spacious and vnpassable Ocean where the Starres hot with their continuall motions and the Sunnes thirstie Steedes wearied with their daily iourney might finde moysture to refresh and nourish their fierie constitutions And therefore they diuided the Earth into two habitable Ilands compassed about and seuered in the midst with a huge Ocean On this side whereof wee are situated and beyond the Antipodes Some Philosophers indeede held otherwise but with greater errors as Leucippus Democritus Epicurus Anaximander which multiplyed Worlds according to their fancie Rawe and vncertaine were the coniectures of the best Yea those whom wee reuerence as better then the best Philosophers had no lesse errour in this point The Golden-mouthed Doctor had a Leaden conceit that the Heauens were not round whom Theodoret is said to follow Theophilact alleageth Basil for this his assertion Nec mobile esse coelum nec circulare That heauen is neither moueable nor round How firmly and confidently doth Firmianus Lactantius both denie and deride the opinion that there are Antipodes But easier it was for him with a Rhetoricall flourish wherein I thinke of all latine Fathers he deserueth highest prize and praise to dash this opinion out of countenance then to confute the Arguments and Allegations which he there citeth in the Aduersaries name But hee that surpassed Lactantius no lesse in knowledge of truth then he was surpassed by him in smoothnesse of Stile herein holdeth equpà ge and draweth in the same yoke of errour I meane him whose venerable name no words are worthy and sufficient to Vsher in Saint Augustine who though somewhere he affirmeth the Antipodes yet elsewhere pressed with an Argument how men should passe from these parts in which Adam and Noah liued to the Antipodes through the vnmeasurable Ocean he thought it easiest to deny that which certain experience at that time could not so easily proue although euen then some reports but obscure and vncertaine had been spread abroad of sailing about Africa as a little before is shewed which must enforce that which Augustine denied More hot and forcible were the Arguments of our more zealous then learned Countrey-man Boniface Archbishop of Mentz and of Pope Zacharie who pursued this opinion of the Antipodes so eagerly against Virgil Bishop of the Iuuanenses in Boiaria about the yeere 743. That vpon Boniface his complaint the Pope writeth to him to cast out this Virgil the Philosopher so doth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 call him out of the Temple and Church of God and to depriue him for this peruerse Doctrine that there were Antipodes of his Bishopricke and Virgil must packe to Rome to giue account of this Philosophy to the Pope Minerua sui Let the Reader here iudge betweene the Philosophy of the one and the Foole-asse-O-phy of the other and let our Catholike Parasites tell vs whether their not-erring Father pronounced this sentence of errour as a Pope or as a priuate Doctor But what doth this Doter in my way Some also alleadge Nazianzen Hierome and Procopius for this or the like opinion But Poets Philosophers Fathers in other things worthy our loue for their delightfull Poems our admiration for their profound Science our awfull respect and reuerence for their holy learning and learned holinesse herein we bid you farewell magis amica veritas our America subiect to that supposed burning Zone with clouds and armies of
they which saying Amen beleeueth all things which the wise Rabbins haue written And if any bee so simple that he cannot vnderstand yet must hee beleeue When two Rabbins saith their Talmud maintaine contrary opinions yet must not men contradict them because both of them hath his Kabala or Tradition for the same and this is a rule in their Rabbins Remember rather the word of the Scribes than of the Law of Moses R. Salomon Iarchi vpon Deuteronomie chap. 17. verse 12. Thou shalt not decline from the word that they shall shew thee to the right hand or to the left hath these words And when he saith vnto thee Of the right hand that it is the left and Of the left hand that it is the right thou must beleeue it how much more if hee saith The right hand is the right c. They haue a storie in their Legend for the same That there came a Goi a Gentile to Sammai and asked how many Lawes they had who answered two a Written and a Verball Hee replyed the written Law I acknowledge no lesse then thou make mee therefore a Iew and teach me the other Sammai refused and hee went to Hillel these both liued a little before the time of Christ who admitted and instructed him after hee bad him pronounce the letters in order Aleph Beth Gimel c. which he did The next day he bade him say the same letters backward Gimel Beth Aleph The Gentile said Rabbi yesterday you taught me otherwise and yet said Hillel you beleeue me and so learne of me which you must no lesse doe in the Traditionall Law beleeuing all that is therein I had almost thought in reading of this Hillel I had heard the Catechizing of some Romish Conuert that with an implicite faith beleeuing and worshipping hee knowes not what repentè prodit Catholicus is foole Catholike in an hower resigning himselfe to whatsoeuer that Church teacheth vpon an Ipsa dixit or else that I had beene reading the life and precepts of Ignatius Leiola the Iesuite-founder so like is the story though the names differ who practised himselfe and trayned vp others Ad sapientem hanc sanctamque stultitiam caecae vt ipse appellabat obedientiae saith Maffaeus in a large Discourse hereof Pauls Omnia probate was in those dayes but prudentiam non obedientis sed imperantis esse respondit Ignatius negabat obedientis nomine dignum haberi oportere qui legitimo superiori non cum voluntate iudicium quoque suhmitteret in superiorum iussu examinando esse arrogantiam And thus writeth Ignatius himselfe Perit celebris illa Obedientiae caecae simplicitas cùm apud nos ipsos in quaestionem vocamus recténe praecipiatur an secus perit humilitas perit in rebus arduis fortitudo c. To obey in outward execution and effecting the command of a Superiour may proue no vertue of patience but a cloake of malice a very imperfect perfection not worthy the name of vertue vntill the inward affect bee ioyned to the outward effect neither is this a whole sacrifice except hee not onely will the same but iudge and bee of the same sentence with his superiour hee must in the person of his superiour behold Christ who can neither deceiue nor be deceiued ready alway to defend neuer to mislike his command yea whatsoeuer his superiour enioyneth hee must accept as the precept and will of God and as hee is readie to beleeue the Catholique faith so to be carryed without further search with a blind force of the will desirous to obey Thus did Abraham when hee was commanded to offer Isaac and therefore thus must the Iesuite doe when an Ignatian Superiour commands or else hee is no Holocaust for the Loiolan Altar Euen as a Carkasse saith the Iesuiticall Constitution which will bee drawne any way or a Staffe in an old mans hand plyant as he pleaseth so and so must our waxen Iesuites bee Asses without vnderstanding nay carkasses without life staues and slaues and blockes guided by their guides though it bee to cracke the Crownes of Kings And as his legacie hee bequeathed this a little before his Death to the societie that they should bee as plyant waxe as an Image flexible at pleasure yea though it seeme against Conscience yet must a man beleeue his Superiour rather then himselfe And if the Pope should bid him crosse the Sea in the next Boat hee met with though destitute of sayles oares mast and helme and without all kind of prouision he would doe it willingly This hee called Mortification Others which are not thus blind haue their sinnes still remaining and haue but one foot in Religion This obedience saith another of them is the character imprinted by Diuine and not humane hand in this societie What Diuell of Hell could euer haue taught Murthers and Treasons to be tollerable nay commendable nay meritorious if his Scholler should not first passe this Iesuiticall Retrograde from a Christian and a Man with the losse of Religion and Reason to become as these Rome-Rabbins terme it a Carkasse indeed an Image or a Staffe in the hand of That old one which like the Aegyptian Inchanters hee might make a Serpent at his pleasure But let the truth preuaile and Moses Rod eate vp these Serpent-rods of the Aegyptians And what more could old Hillel say to his Disciples Or doth God himselfe exact Bernard throughout his seauenth Epistle teacheth more soundly of the Pope and those religious Superiours Nec dico praepositorum mandata esse à subditis iudicanda vbi nihil iubere deprehenduntur diuinis contrarium institutis Sed necessariam esse dico prudentiam qua aduertatur si quid aduersetur libertatem qua ingenuè contemnatur Hanc ego nunquam aemuler obedientiam talem mihi nunquam libeat modestians vel potius molestiam imitari Talis siquidem obedientia omni est contemptu deterior talis quoque modestia vltra omnem modum extenditur O patientia omni digna impatientia But to leaue this question and our Iesuites till fitter time Iewish Rabbins auerre that whosoeuer mocketh or contemneth their sayings shall bee punished in hot and boyling Zoah or excrement in hell And thus much of their Talmud the originall and authoritie thereof More modest yet were those Fathers of Trent that would ascribe but equalitie of reuerence and respect to their Traditions with the Sripture With equall affection and esteeme say they wee receiue and reuerence Traditions and the bookes of the old and new Testament which must needs acknowledge themselues beholding to them lest if they complaine they follow not their Traditionarie Masters in making sit lower and they haue their Anathema as ready as the Rabbins their Zoah and their Traditions Canons and Constitutions must interpret as well as their Kabala And some of that hotter societie haue found fiue priuiledges of Tradition aboue Scripture as being written in the hearts of men
by the finger of God being more ancient giuing confirmation to the Scripture not subiect to wresting and containing all truth whereas poore Scripture for no better defending of the Iesuiticall Iebusiticall Iezabelicall assertions is condemned first of her meane originall as being written but by the Apostles not the finger of God Secondly as a later vpstart and thirdly as receiued vpon the Churches authoritie and fourthly a dead letter written in paper or parchment with Inke subiect to wresting like a sheath which admits any blade whether of leade wood or brasse as well as the true one And lastly not containing all the mysteries of Religion explicitly as being not therefore giuen to prescribe an exact forme of Faith but written by some vpon some occasions to some Churches and therefore in controuersies as of Images Inuocation of Saints and the like where Scripture seemes to speake for heretikes wee must haue recourse to the other kind of Scripture written in the heart of the Church as Interpreter of all Scriptures Iudge of all opinions and whatsoeuer else foule-mouthed blasphemie with faire pretext can arrogate to this or derogate from the other O that men would therefore hate that Whore which these impudent Panders prostitute thus decked with the spoyles of diuine Scriptures which haue another testimonie of themselues and therefore the testimonie of God that All Scripture is giuen by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproofe for correction for Instruction in righteousnesse yea and hereunto sufficient that the man of God whose men whose emissaries are these gaine-sayers may bee perfect throughly perfected vnto all good workes But leaue wee Simeon and Leui brethren in euill together Yet before wee leaue their Talmud though highly esteemed amongst them I thought meet also to speake more largely both of that and of their learned Rabbins out of Petrus Galatinus Sixtus Senensis Paulus Ricius Rambam and others that write thereof The Traditionall Law they call Tora scebealpe that is the Law which is in the mouth or deliuered by word of mouth Rabbi Moses Aegyptius telleth the passages thereof thus Ioshua receiuing it of Moses deliuered it to Phineas the sonne of Eleazar the Priest Phineas to Heli the Priest hee to Samuel the Prophet Samuel to Dauid hee to Achias the Prophet who deliuered the same to Elias the teacher of Elisha Elisha or Elisaeus to Ioiada the Priest this Ioiada to Zacharias Zacharias to Hosea and hee to Amos Amos to Esay of whom Micheas receiued it and of him Ioel Nahum from him and from him againe Habacuck who taught it Sephanie the Instructer of Ieremie of whom Baruch the Scribe learned it Baruch taught it Ezra Vntill this time the Iewes had none other but the written Scripture Now for their Scriptures they call the same Arbaa Veefrim that is the foure and twentie of the number of the bookes after their computation all which they reduce to foure parts The first of which they call Tora the Law or Humas the Pentateuch or fiue bookes and they call euery booke after the first words in the beginning thereof The second part hath foure bookes Ioshua Iudges Samuel and Kings The third part comprehendeth foure other which they call the last Prophets Esay Ieremie Ezekiel and the booke of the twelue smaller Prophets The fourth part is called Chettuuim and hth eleuen bookes Paralipomenon or Chronicles the Psalmes the Prouerbes Iob Ruth Ecclesiastes Lamentations Canticles Ester Daniel Ezra which they make one with Nehemia Ecclesiasticus Iudith and Tobias and the first booke of Maccabees they haue but reckon not among the foure and twentie The third and fourth bookes of Ezra I haue not seene saith Galatinus in Hebrew but some of them say that they are lately found at Constantinople but the second of Maccabees and the Booke of Philo called the Wisedome of Salomon I neuer saw but in Greeke nor those additions to Daniel But after the Babylonian captiuitie Ezra writing out the Law which had beene burned in the destruction of the Citie other Wisemen writ out the Exposition of the Law lest if another destruction should happen the same might perish And from that time all the Wise-men which are called the men of the Great Synagogue in their teaching the Law deliuered the same both in word and writing vntill the Talmud was written It was then saith Picus in seuentie bookes after the number of the seuentie Elders These mens authoritie hath the next place to the Prophets And are in this order mentioned in their Talmud Ezra deliuered the same to Simon the Priest called Iaddus who was honoured of Alexander This Simon deliuered this explaination to Antigonus Antigonus to Iosephus the sonne of Iohn and to Iosephus the sonne of Iehezer They to Nuaeus Arbulensis and Ioshua the sonne of Peratria whose Auditor the Iewes falsly affirme that Iesus our blessed Sauiour was which liued an hundred and ten yeers after Those two deliuered the same to Iuda the son of Tibaeus and Simon the sonne of Sata These to Samaia and Abatalion and they to Hillel and Samaeus Hillel flourished an hundred yeeres before the destruction of the second Temple and had eightie Schollers or Disciples all of excellent wit and learning thirtie of them for their excellence had the Diuinitie descending vpon them as Moses and other thirtie obtained that the Sunne should stand still for them as Ioshua the rest were accounted meane Of these the greatest was Ionothas sonne of Vziel the least Iohn the sonne of Zacheus which yet knew the Scripture and Talmud and all things else to the examples of Foxes and Narrations of Diuels Hillel and Samaeus deliuered this explaination to this Iohn and to Simeon the Iust sonne of the said Hillel who after receiued Christ in his armes and prophesied of him in the Temple Rabbi Moses proceedeth and saith that Simeon taught Gamaliel Pauls Master and Gamaliel instructed his sonne Rabban Simeon who was slaine of Hadrian the Emperour after he had taught his sonne Iudas whom the Iewes for his Learning and Holinesse call Rahbenu Haccados that is our holy Master of which honourable name there had beene another in the time of the Roman Consuls These for the most part besides almost infinite others of their hearers haue left many things written of the explaination of the Law of which the Talmud was compacted Of the vnreasonable absurdities and impious blasphemies of the Talmud howsoeuer abominable in themselues yet let it not be irkesome to the Reader to see some mentioned therein to obserue the depth of diuine vengeance which in this blinded Nation wee may heare and feare For who would thinke it possible that any could entertaine in his heart that which there they haue written of GOD as that before the creation of this world to keepe himselfe from idlenesse hee made and marred many other worlds that he spends three houres euery day in reading the Iewish law that Moses one day ascending to Heauen