hath a most accurate dispute in his Madrasch or Exposition upon the Pentateuch which book is called Zeror hammor in English a bundle of Myrrhe Other interpreters in this place say thinking their opinion to be more plausible that the Jewes use to smell to the perfumes because the fire of hell the Sabbath yet lasting doth not stinke but so soon as the Sabbath is ended and the doores of hell set open that the soules of the wicked departed this life may enter againe into the place of torment then it begins to send out an ill savour against which the nosing of those odors are a present remedy as it is recorded in their Germane Minhagin They looke upon their nailes also because of their fruitfull growth which aâ—though they be alwaies cut upon the Friday yet notwithstanding they alwaies grow againe Others say that this is done in remembrance of that garment which God at the first made for Adam in paradise for it was of the colour of the nailes of a mans hand Others that all this is done to distinguish the nailes from the flesh which wonderfull consideration had its first originall from Adam Who when he saw the whole world wrapt up in darknesse weeping said Woe unto me for whose sinne alone the whole earth is darkned Then God suggested this into his mind that he should take two stones and strike the one against the otherpunc which he doing the fire sparkled out whereat he lighted a candle Then Adam marking that he was every whit naked the utmost parts of his fingers onely excepted he praised God with a greater admiration as we may read in the book called Colbâ— They poure some part of the conseâ—rated wine upon the ground for lucks sake because such an effusion prognosticates that house to become plentifully stored with all things necessary for the sustenanâ—e of life and that in such a manner that they shame not to write that in what house soever this wine is not poured out as water there is no blessing at all resident Some are of opinion that this pouring out of the wine to be done for the refreshing of Corah and his rebellious companions for the Jewes doe foolishly perswade themselves that these being swallowed up of the earth doe as yet remaine alive therein and are comforted by this consecrated wine A little before somewhat was delivered concerning the stinke of hell fire for the confirmation of which we have this story in the Talmud That wicked man Turnus Rophus upon a certaine time demanded of Rabbi Akibha in what respect the Sabbath did excell other daies of the weeke that they should prosecute it with so great honour The Rabbine replyed why doe mortals more honour thee then other men of the same mould because said the King my liege will have it so To whom Rabbi Akibha answered againe The King of Kings even our God himselfe wils us to give more honour and reverence unto the Sabbath then to any day in the weeke besides Turnus replies who can certainly assure thee that your Sabbath day is the seventh day and so the true Sabbath indeed perhaps you may celebrate it upon some other The Rabbine answers this may be proved 1. By a water-course of the River Sambation who estreame is so headstrong for the space of six daies that it roles huge great stones along with it by reason whereof it denies any one passage for the whole weeke but upon the Sabbath day it stands unmoveable not running at all in honour to the Sabbath 2. I can draw an evident argument for the demonstration hereof from thy fathers Sepulchre For all the weeke long the smoake and stench of hell fire iss ues out of it because for that space he is tormented therein but upon the Sabbath day the Sepulchre sends out no ill savour the reason is thy father at that time is come out of hell and takes his rest so that the fire thereof hath no power over him and for this very cause smoaks not upon that day When Turnus heard these words of the Rabbine he said unto him peradventure the time of his adjudgement to hell torments is now expired The Rabbine bids him goe unto thy fathers tombe the Sabbath now ended and see if it doe not smoake as yet Which Turnus hearing went and found it to be as the Rabbine had spoken This moved Turnus to a hainous enterprize for by enchantments he cals his father from hell and thus bespeaks him How comes it to passe said hee who diddest not sanctifie the Sabbath all thy life long shouldest now being dead observe and keep it How farre is the time spent since thou becamest so godly a Jew He answered My sonne whosoever living among you will not keep the Sabbath willingly in this place after death must be forced thereunto The sonne replies how are you occupied I pray you upon the worke dayes Upon them saith he some burns us with fire but upon the Sabbath day we enjoy our rest For upon Friday at evening a Proclamation goes forth declaring that the time of ceslation is now present and that the wicked should depart to celebrate the Sabbath which we hearing betake our selves to rest and in resting sanctifie the Sabbath Then in the end of the Sabbath when the Jewes have ended all their prayers then comes an evill Angell called Dumah who is our Master and commands us to returne into hell because the people of Israel have now put an end to their Sabbath Then wee recoiling into hell are scorched by the flames thereof untill the next Sabbath These are our infernall imployments If any have an itching desire to read any more concerning these horrible trifling fopperies let him reade Rabbi Bechai in parscha vaiischma Jethro that is in his exposition upon the eighteenth Chapter of Exodus where hee writes many things about the Sabbath Now seeing God in the Law of Moses and the Prophets oftentimes commanded the Jewes that upon the seventh day they should doe no manner of work and so abstaine from the prophanation thereof Hence ariseth a grand controversie among the Rabbines what may be done what left und one thereupon Concerning which matter there is a large tract in the Talmud upon which the chiefe and most learned Rabbines have written a Commentary so that whosoever could broach the most subtle and acute meditations concerning the genuine manner of sanctifying the Sabbath he was or certainly would have been accounted a teacher unto others I will onely repeat some few things conducible to the matter in hand First then whereas God in his Law commands that not only man but also the beast shall rest upon the Sabbath day The Rabbines with a curious kind of augmentation eâ—quire how far any beast as horse asse or others of the same kinde may lawfully goe upon the Sabbath day Whether also any of these creatures may be allowed to carry any burden thereupon This question is fully stated and that doctorâ€like
entred the Synagogue and sung that prayer beginning Berachu in a soule ravishing delightfull and harmonicall note then hell breaks loose and the gates of purgatory flie open the soules in both leape out into the earth and run into every river fountaine or any other water they can come by desiring for a time to coole their scorched substance and this is the cause why the Rabbines most severely commanded that none should dare to draw any well dry upon the Sabbath day lest these poore and miserable soules should be utterly destitute of such a refreshing as we may read in their Minhagin In the meane time that they are a praying in the Synagogue there come two Angels the one good the other evill who standing before the door of the Synagogue and hearing any pray diligently and also reade attentively that Scripture Thus were the heavens and earth finished and all the hoste of them and what followes concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath They bring him to his owne home and putting their hands upon his head say Loe this coale hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged Rabbi Jose saith in the name of Rabbi Juda that these two Angels bring every man to his home when hee returnes from the Synagogue And if these Angels entering the house of any Jew finde the Sabbath lampes burne cleare the table covered and furnished with all necessaries the bed neatly made then saies the good Angell It is the pleasure of God Almighty that these things should be in the same state the next Sabbath day that I have now found them in To which the evill Angell is forced to say Amen But if they finde all things out of order then the evill Angell saith these things shall be in the same manner the next Sabbath to which the good Angell sore against his will must say Amen likewise When they are departed the Synagogue and every man returned to his owne house then one saying unto another God send you an happy Sabbath they instantly fal aboard for it is written Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it which last word is in the Hebrew lekadescho by reason of which they give this glosse upon the Text. So soon as the Sabbath is begun remember that thou also have thy Kaddasch in readinesse that is to say remember solemnly to imitate the same with a cupfull of wine Hence it comes to passe that in many Synagogues presently after the ending of evening prayer a bowle of wine is ready prepared because some strangers or poor people which have no wine at home may bee there present This being consecrated is reached forth unto them unto the end that may celebrate the beginning of the Sabbath in that very place Whosoever hee be in the Synagogue that blesseth the wine he tastes it not but gives it to some young boy to drinke thereof for he is not accustomed to drinke of the same unlesse it be at home at his own table where also he usually consecrates the same Instantly then upon their returne they sit downe to table upon which ought to be salt a bowle of wine and two loaves covered with a diapernapkin Then the master of the family takes a bowle full of wine and beginning the Sabbath with blessing it saith I am Haschischi vaie cuâ—â—a haschamaijm The foure first letters of these words note unto us that ever blessed name of God JeHoVaH the name expressing his eternall essence And by reason of this mystery the Rabbines have added the two former words being the last of the first Chapter of Genesis unto the two latter being the first of the second and by reason hereof they rise up at the repetition of them giving a due reverence to the name of God The words interpreted run thus The sixth day the heaven and earth were finished and all the host of them And on the seventh day God ended his worke which he had made And he rested on the seventh day from all his worke which he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he had rested from all his worke which he had made Here in the mean time he inserts an admonition saying O my Lords you Rabbines have regard unto the prayer that every one in particular may in the same manner bee excused thereby as if he had said it himselfe and so he holds on to pray and say Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world who hast created the fruit of the vine Blessed be thou O Lòrd our God King of the world who hast sactified us by thy commandements and given us thine holy Sabbath and out of thy love and good will towards us hast left it as hereditary unto us in memory of thy workes in the creation For it is the beginning of the gathering together of thy Saints and the memoriall of our departure out of Egypt Thou hast chosen and sanctifyed us out of all other people and hast left us the Sabbath of thy holinesse as a legacy of thy love and good will towards us Blessled be thou O God who sanctifyest the Sabbath In the next place he drinks some of the wine and reacheth it to the the rest that they may doe as he hath done Then he takes the napkin from over the bread and taking the two loaves unto him cuts them not before he hath said grace contrary to that which he doth upon the daies of the weeke but presently saith By your leave my Masters and Rabbines blessing the bread in this forme Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world which brings bread out of the earth After this he breaks a piece of bread and eates imparting also to every one at the table a morsell which is of greater size then ordinary in honour of the Sabbath upon it is not lawfull for any to be niggardly then they eat whatsoever God hath sent While that the cup is in blessing every one casts a delightfull eye upon the Sabbath-lamps because that the Rabbines write that when any one travels upon the daies of the weeke the five hundred part of his sight departs from him for the regaining of which the beholding of these lamps in that time while the wine is consecrated is a soveraign medicine For the Hebrew word Ner signifying a light being doubled make in number fifty They cover the bread that it may not behold its owne shame the wine being present which is in the first place sanctified for the use of the Sabbath notwithstanding that the Scripture gives the bread the place when it saith I will bring thee into a land of wheate and barley of vines and figge-trees For here wheat is first named which is the materiall of bread yet neverthelesse it is the last of all to be consecrated for the use of the Sabbath which would be a great shame unto it if it should stand bare Others affirm
some resemblance and analogy with their head though oftentimes they lose their naturall taste and qualities by reason of the places and channels in which they keep their course Even so out of those chiefe Articles concerning the labours of the Jewes many moe labours arise and issue as the River from the fountaine which labours seem to differ much from the other yet they alwaies doe correspond in some similitude for example The first and chiefe Article is to till plow or sowe the ground to this Article these are reducible To dig fill up dâ—tches dresse the garden with shovels transplant herbes plant vines inoculate loppe to water herbes and young plants or cyens and if there bee any other kind of worke to be done by which any thing may be furthered in his growth Hereupon the Rabbines for feâ—re of filling up of ditches have permitted it is lawfull to spriâ—kie a chamber with water upon the Sabbath day to avoid the rising of the dust but by no meanes to sweep it with a besome lest some chinke or other should be filled thereby And for the same reason they have interdicted the casting of nuts little stones oâ— such like into a ditch as at a certaine marke It is also prohibited that any one should walke upon new plowed â—land lest by hard treading hee might either make a ditch or fill one The second Article is concerning the cutting down and reaping of corn To which are reâ—erred the plucking of dates grapes olives olive berries the gathering of figs and apples the taking of honey out of the Bee hive and many moe of the same nature Hence it is permitted to taste or eate an apple hanging upon the bough or branch upon the Sabbath day but by no meanes to pluck it off It is unlawfull to goe through a field of corne especially if the weather be rainy for the seed may be rooted up by the heele which is all one as if it were cut with the sickle Hence it was that the Jewes reprehended the Disciples of our Saviour for pulling the eares of corne upon the Sabbath To the Article of threshing are referred the peeling renting shaking of hempe or flax the spinning of wooll the straining of any fruits which are full of moisture as olives orenges apples grapes the wringing of any wet cloth and such like The giving of sucke is also to be referred to this Article yet the Rabbines do not agree in opinion concerning this matter Hereupon it is much questioned whether a Nurse being bewraied by a child upon the Sabbath day may lawfully make her selfe cleane Many hold that shee ought to wash her hands by the meanes whereof the filth may by little and little bee done away But Rabbi Jose dislikes the opinion and prohibits the doing of it seeing such a washing cannot goe in the number of ordinary ones Thus I have showne you three of their Articles which in the Talmud are called the fathers of labour by which you may easily know how to judge of the rest only I will add that the offences committed against both kinds are accounted equall The Articles which arise from the first are called by the Jewes Tole doth Generations or off-springs in the relation to the former appellation of fathers He that offends against either is esteemed to deserâ—e stoning but who out of deliberate malice transgresseth the least of them God will blot his name out of the booke of life These things are more at large commented upon in the Talmud the full description whereof as it is there set downe many volumes are not large enough to comprehend Now although the Jewes in their owne foolish conâ—eits perswade themselves that they rightly observe and keepe the Sabbath omitting nothing which appertaâ—â—es to the honouring and sanctifying thereof yet experience it selfe to which both their consciences and doctrine give witnesse cries out that they not at any time kept and sanctified it as they ought Rabbi Jochanan in that treatise of the Talmud about the Sabbath in the sixteenth Chapter and the hundred and eighteenth page affirms That whosoever keeps the Sabbath as he ought and as the strict rule there of requires and abstaines from Idolatry shall have remission of all his sâ—ns which he proves out of the fifty sixt Chapter of Isaiah and the second verse where it is thus written Blessed is the man who doth this and the sonne of man who laies hold upon it and who keeps the Sabbath and pollutes it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mechallelo and profanes it not for so the word in the originall most properly signifies Yet the skilfull rabbines will not have written Mechallelo but Machollo which signifies he hath obtained remission Rabbi Jehuda saith that if the people of Israel had sanctified the first Sabbath after the giving of the Law in that manner which they ought there had never any strange nation borne rule over them For as it is recorded upon the seventh day after the giving of the Law some of the people went out to gather manna and found it not for which sinne of theirs Amalâ—k came and fought against Israel as it is written in the next Chapter Rabbi Jochanan in the name of Rabbi Simeon who was the sonne of Jochai saith that if Israel at this day could but rightly keep two Sabbaths one immediately following the other they should be presently delivered out of their bondage as it is written Thus saith the Lord they that keep my Sabbaths c. Even unto them will I give within my house and within my wals a place and a name better then of sonnes and daughters I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off Even them will I bring to my holy mountaine and make them joyfull in my house of prayer Because therefore the Jewes are not delivered unto this day yea are almost past hopes of a future deliverance it must necessarily follow that as yet they have not sanctifyed the Sabbath as they ought Yea they themselves confess so much saying that they were deficient herein in the times foregoing the destruction of the second Temple and that this was the reason why Jerusalem was laid waste for thus they hold on in the Talmud Abhai saith that Jerusalem was destroied by reason her inhabitants profaned the Sabbath as it is written Her Priests have violated my Law and have profaned my holy things They have put no difference between the holy and the profane neither have they shewed difference between the clean and the unclean they have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths and I am profaned among them Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them And even so do the Jewes at this day for they observe and keep the Sabbath onely with a good cup of wine some dainty dishes of flesh and fish and al kind of pleasures to the utmost reach of their abilitie They abstaine from all outward workes yea they will not have
ill liver commonly before an honest man Hence it is that these things considered such a flood of contention often ariseth that a Christian Magistrate is often sent for to stop stay it forunder the Sun there is not a more testy envious jarring and more implacable people then the Jews And this is the fruit which they reap from the reading of the Law with so great attention as they bring and boast of and to say the very truth no better can be expected seeing their outside makes a beautiful and glorious shew but within they are full of malice and hypocrisie Now whereas there is no perfect joy where slesh and wine or as they say Basâ—r re iâ—jin are wanting therefore they conclude and end this Feast of joy and rejoycing with a sumptuous and great Supper CHAP. XXIII Of the Feast of Dedication THis Feast is wont to be celebrated upon the twenty first day of November by them called Kisleu in memory of Judas Hasmonita or Machabaeus that excellent warriour who after the death of his Father Mattathias overcame and vanquished the Grecians who had formerly subdued Jerusalem profaned the holy Temple poured out the oil of the Sanctuary and done very much evil unto the Jews He also won the City cleansed the Sanctuary upon the twenty first day of this moneth as we may read in the first book of Mâ—chabees and the fourth Chapter Wherefore Judas and his brethren with the whole Congregation of Israel concluded that the dayes of dedication of the Altar should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of eight dayes from the five and twentieth day of the moneth Casleu with mirth and gladnesse This Feast the Jews at this day do also keep and celebrate but in a far different manner then those ancient Machabites For here now is nothing to be seen but feasting and gormandising quaffing and drinking piping and dancing revelling and roaring all to passe away the time but little or no thanksgiving unto the Lord of hosts for the victory and conquest over their enemies as upon this day At that time when Judas had dedicated the Temple none of the holy oil could be found so that the Lamps could not be lighted according to the ordinance of Moses Judas therefore made diligent search in the Temple where he found a small horn of oil sealed with the Ring of one of the Priests which was onely sufficient to feed the Lamps for one nights space yet preserved in that happy manner that it was not polluted by the enemies Hereupon the heart of Judas and the whole congregation was filled with sorrow because they could have no more oil till these eight dayes were expired because the City Tehoa from whence it was to be fetched was four dayes journey distant from Jerusalem In this their perplexity the favà our and mercy of God appeared to them by this miracle for the horn of oil sailed not for eight dayes together In the remembrance of this favour and blessing so miraculously conferred upon them the Jews at this day use a great deal of superstitious pomp in tinding of the Lamps appointed for the Synagogue in the time of this Feast They provide a Candlestick with seven branches capable of seven lights or Lamps which burn every night though not until the morrow from the beginning of this Feast unto the end thereof and wheresoever any of these Lamps are found whether in their Houses Stoves or Bedchambers there it is not lawful to move the finger to any kinde of work A Lamp must also be hung as well upon the right side of the gate of every mans house as of the Synagogue the distance whereof from the ground ought to be ten spans no lower twenty but no higher It is a great question among them how long these Lamps may burn and by whom they may be tinded whether one may be lighted at another and such like Thus are they very solicitous and careful about these external lights never considering that there is nothing but darknesse in their own hearts neither striving that they may be illuminated by the light of Gods holy Spirit CHAP. XXIV Of their Feast of Purim THe word Purim is a Persian word and is rendred by the Hebrews Goral which signifies a lot This Feast therefore took its name from that plot and wicked device of Haman the Agagite who in the moneth Nisan in the twelfth year of Ahasuerus cast Pur that is a lot whereby all the Jews both young and old children and women in all the Kings Provinces should be destroyed and rooted out in one day even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth moneth which is the moneth Adar or February which decree was written in the name of the King and sealed with his Ring The end of this conspiracy fell far contrary to Hamans intent For Haman was hanged upon a pair of Gallows fifty foot high and the King granted the Jews in what Cities soever they were to gather themselves together and to stand for their life to root out slay and destroy all them that vexed them So that strengthened by the Kings Letter Patents they put their adversaries to death In Shushan the Palace they slew five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman and the Jews that were in the Provinces of King Ahasucrus slew of them that hated them seventy five thousand men upon the thirteenth day of the moneth Adar and rested upon the fourteenth and fifteenth thereof Wherefore it is instituted and ordained that upon the fourteenth and the fifteenth day of the said moneth every yeer should a Feast be kept by the Jews in all quarters in remembrance of this great deliverance throughout their generations by an ordinance for ever Wherein they rested from their enemies in the moneth which turned unto them from sorrow to joy from mourning to a joyful day as we may read in the ninth Chapter of the book of Esther These two dayes are celebrated at this day by the Jews imitation of their ancestors but in that manner that they rather deserve the name of the dayes of profanation and drunkennesse then of joy and gladnesse Although upon these dayes working is not prohibited by the text of Scripture yet the Jewes at this day rest from all manner of labour writing and affirming in the Talmud that he will never thrive or prosper that does any work upon them For there it is recorded that upon a certain time that a man being sowing line-seed upon one of these dayes a certain Rabbine coming by and seeing him began to reprove and curse him Whereupon it came to passe that the seed never came to growth nor did ever peep out of the ground In the first place therefore the women are enjoyned in a more peculiar manner to sanctifie and celebrate this Festival because this deliverance was wrought by the hands of Queen Esther The night being come they light the Lamps of joy in the Synagogue and
for Elias the Prophet For if this be not repeated he comes not to the circumcision Peradventure through age his ears are become dull of hearing and therefore he that invites him must stretch his voice to a higher note then ordinary Moreover that Elias may tarry till the circumcision be totally finished they leave the chair in the same place for the space of three whole dayâ—s Upon a time a certain rich Jew of Reginoburgum or Queenborough would have a young Infant of his circumcised who chose Rabbi Juda Chasidi which for his truly religious life was called Rabbi Juda the holy for a Godfather who while the child was brought in to be circumcised and the whole congregation stood up and cried Baruch habha held his peace and did not rise at all He being questioned concerning this his carriage answered I perceived that Elias came not and sate in the seat with me from whence I collect that this child will never make a good man and because I see a certain man sitting in the window with a long white beard go and ask of him whether the words that I speak be true or not he will answer you Well when they had thus done the man replied Be ause Elias soresaw that this child would forsake the faith of the Jews and turn Christian therefore he would not be present ate the circumcision And truly so it came to pass for the child comming to riper years was converted to Christianity When therefore the Godfather hath the child lying in his bosom then the Mohel looseth his swadling takes hold of his yard laying hands upon the former part thereof by the foreskin thrusts down the gland thereof which done he rubs the foreskin that by mortifying of it the child may be lesse sensible of the cutting then taking the knife prepared for circumcision out of the boyes hand that carried it he begins to sing with shrill voice Blessed be thou O God our Lord King of the World who hast sanctified us by thy Commandements and given to us the Covenant of circumcision In the mean time whiles he is thus a discanting he cuts away so much of the fore-skin that the top of the yard may be seen bare and naked which he throws in haste into the Bason filled with sand restoring the knife to him from whom he took it and takes one of the Cups full of red Wine out of which he sucks so much as he can hold in his mouth which he presently spnes out again upon the Infant to wash away the bloud and also some in his face if he perceive him to faint instantly upon this he takes the childs yard in his mouth and sucks as much bloud out of it as he can possible to the end that it may sooner leave bleeding which bloud he casts out again either into one of the bowls of red Wine or into the bason of Sand. This he doth three times at the least which the Hebrews call mezizah which Moses commanded not but was instituted by the Rabbines and wise men among the Jews as it seemed good unto them After that the flux of bloud be somewhat appeased then the Mohel with his nails which upon either Thumb are very sharp tares asunder the mangled skin of the childs yard forcing it so far backward that the head of the yard may wholly appear which renting asunder they call priah by this taring of the fore-skin the poor Infant suffers greater pain and griefe than he did by the former cutting This done the Mohel takes the linnen rags which one of the boyes kept steeped in a bason of Oyl applies them to the childes yard and binds them about three or four times then taking the Infant folds him up in his swadling cloaths The whole being thus finished the Father of the child saith Blessed be thou O God our Lord King of the world who hast sanctisied us by thy Commandements and hast commanded us to fulfill the Covenant made with Abraham our Father Then shall the whole Congregation make answer and say As happy an entrance shall this little Infant have into the possession of Moses his Law inâ—o Marriage and the practise of good works as he hath had into the covenant of Abraham our Father Then the Mohel shal wash his unclean mouth and hâ—s hands also until they be white and clean the Godfather of the child rises up with him placeth himself directly opposite to the Mohel who takes one of the bowls full of red wine and saith a certain Prayer over it then he prayes also over the Infant and sayes O God which art our God the God of our Fathers strengthen and keep this Infant to the comfort of his Parents and make that his name may be called for at this instant he names the child calling him Isaac Isaac which was the Son of Abraham let his Father rejoyce because he came out of his loyns let his Mother rejoyce in the fruit of her womb as it is written Thy father and thy Mother shall be glad and she that bare thee shall rejoyce God saith also by the mouth of his Prophet and when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own bloud I said unto thee when thou wast in thy bloud live yea I sayd unto thee when thou wast in thy bloud live At those words the Mohel dips his finger into one of the Cups full of Wine into that I mean into which he had vented the bloud which he suckt out of the childs yard and annoints the lips of the child three times therewith hoping that according to the fore-mentioned saying of the Prophet his dayes shall be more then they should have been otherwise and that he shall live in the bloud of his circumcision David also saith Remember the marvellous works that he hath done his wonders and the judgement of his mouth Then he proceeds to pray unto God that he would defend them that are present as being such men who would eftsoons confirm his covenant by the fulfilling of it Furthermore that he would vouchsafe to grant a long life to the Father and Mother of the child and also to bestow a blessing on the Babe His Orizons ended he reatcheth the Cup which he had formerly sanctified to every one of the yong men and invites them to drink thereof To conclude all they return with the Child who is now made a Jew unto his Fathers house restoring him into the arms of the Mother And here is the upshot of the whole matter Some of the learned and religious Jewes hearing the Infant cry out by reason of the pains suffered by him in the cime of circumcision comfort themselves with that sentence which is extant in the second book of Moses I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage and I have remembred my covenant When the Mohel makes his last prayer then he stands neare unto the Ark of the Covenant together
same cause departed this life five years sooner than the course of nature exacted that is lest his eyes should behold his degenerate nephew Esau leading his life in a wicked ungodly manner Ten years being expired and the youngling Jew being indifferent well versed in the Books of Moses it is necessary he apply himself to the study of the Talmud and of duty to cleave unto the text thereof in which the very foundation of Iewish Traditions and Ordinances as also of the Divine and Humane Law is comprehended At thirteen years of age he is called Bar Mizvah the son of the Commandements when he is bound to keep and observe all the Commandements in number six hundred and thirteen containing the sum and argument of the Law of Moses and of the whose body of Iewish Superstition If from that time forward he sin and do not execute that is commanded then is he liable to be punished both by the Law of God and man What sin soever he committed before the thirteenth year of his age his Father must suffer for it Which is the reason that the child comming to these years his father cals ten Jews unto him and in their presence witnesseth that this his Son is come to full age and being instructed in the Commandements hath learned the manner and custome of the Zizim and Tephillim of which more anon as also the form of blessing and his daily prayers for which reason he would be freed from him that he might not from henceforth smart for his offences he being such an one who is to become Bar mitzuah the Son of the Commandements and ought to suffer for his sins in his own proper person This being confirmed by the ten Jews there present the Father saith a certain short prayer in which chiefly he gives God thanks that he hath delivered and unburdened him of the punishment due unto his son for his sin further intreating him that his son by the help of the Divine grace may for many daies remain safe and without danger and be industrious in good works In the fifteenth year of their age all the children of the Jews are forced to learn the Gemara which is the perfection of the Talmud written for the better comprehending and understanding of the acute and subtil dispute and decisions about the doubtful things in the text thereof and in these they spend the greater part of their life very seldom or never bestowing one minutes study in the books of the Prophets but utterly neglecting them Whence it comes to pass that many Jews there are ready to drop into their graves who to my knowledge have not read any one of the Prophets from beginning to end And this is the cause that they know so little concerning the Messias that the promises concerning him are become not only obscure unto them but also altogether unknown In the eighteenth year of their age the males enter into the bond of wedlock according to an ancient Order in the Talmud which they not seldome transgressing oftentimes marry before the time injoyned to avoyd fornication the females may marry when they are twelve years and one day old In the twentieth year they are licensed to traffick buy and sell play the Chapmen cozen and circumvent any whom they can possibly of which the Christians to their grief have had too much experience of which in another place Because our yong Jew hath now taken his degree of Bar mitzuah or Son of the Commandements and is entred into the order of the Jews our endeavour shall now be to express the manner how both their yong and old men behave themselves in this order CHAP. IV. How the Jews rising betimes out of their beds prepare themselves for Morning Prayer IT is writtten in that Tract of the Gemara called Bava basra that it was the assertion of Rabbi Eliezar haggadol that every Jew from the fifteenth of July until the feast of Penticost ought to forsake his bed before day because in this time the nights are long but from that time till July he may sleep untill perfect lay because the nights are very short And the truth of this position the wise men and Rabbines endeavour to prove out of many places of the Lamentations of Jeremy and out of the History of Ruth which are so full of subtilty that they cannot in this place be honoured with an explanation The good Wife of the house is bound to wake her Husband and the Parents are joyntly obliged to rouse up their children when they have once passed the thirteenth yeare of their age and are subject to Jewish Ordinances as wee have declared in the former chapter Furthermore the Chachamim have registred that every man is bound in his own proper person to be a Cock unto the twilight and not to foster such a delay that the bright ey'd morning may take advantage to call him ls luggard to which King David condiscends when he saith I will awake right early Surely this is very necessary and that for the performance of our morning Prayers which are to be poured out at the rising of the Sun aud that without delay as David testifies in his Psalms saying They shall honour thee with the Sun as though he had sayd so soone as the Sunne visits our Horizon they shall honour and sing praise unto thee in their early Devotions The Cabbalists write that at the dawning of the day the prayers of every particular enter into the ears of the Almighty and they have some certain grounds out of holy Writ for this their assertion Jeremy in his Lamentations saith Arise cry out in the night in the beginning of the watches that is when it beginneth to dawn David also in a certain Psalm The Lord bath granted me his loving kindness in the day time and in the night season also did I sing of him and made my prayer unto the God of my life The most profound Chachamim say they who are stout and industrious advance themselves to well doing and the observation of Gods Commandements wherefore it shall carry the repute of a good work indeed to rise before the morning watch and to conjoyn day and night by a continued singing of the choisest Psalms and Prayer Wherefore a Jew should not be slack in such a performance but with great alacrity take an early leave of his lovely couch breakfasting his soule with this meditation If any Gentile or Christian should now come unto me who is my debtor or should bring some gorgeous vestments to pledge out of his Wardrobe or any other thing by the mediation of which I might inrich my selfe If I should be now called to some great Prince or Potentate from whom I might obtain a gift cully favour or who in his own Person should intreat my service how readily would my feâ—t be plumed with swistness and spend their forces not to be conscious of the least delay with how much more alacrity ought I to speed
the bread to be covered in remembrance of the Manna For first of all a certaine dew fell in the desart after that the Manna and then another dew between which two it lay hid as between two napkins And so the bread upon the Jewes table lyes between two linnen clothes Hence it is that the women make minced pies or boile some other thing like unto it which they eat instead of Manna for their minced pye hath a certaine lumpe for its bottom and in the middle it is stuft with flesh above also it hath a certain cover made like unto Manna The reason why they take two loaves is in remembrance of the Manna whereof they gathered in times past two measures full upon every Friday according to that which is written And it came to passe that on the sixt day they gathered twice as much bread Briefly of all things to be done by us in this world an especiall care is to bee had of our bodies upon the Sabbath day which thing the holy Scripture so often commands us saying Thou shalt call the Sabbath Oneg a delight because wee ought to restrhaine our selves from no sort of pleasure upon the Sabbath day In the same manner speaks the holy Scrpture concerning festivals Thou shalt rejoice in thy feasts thou and thy sonne c. that all our actions may tend to Gods glory Eat and drinke therefore and be good unto thy selfe and remember to doe it in honour to the Sabbath Yet not thinking that hee may eat many delicates upon the Friday for the filling of his paunch especially if he be poor and cannot away with the cost for this should rather have a place in the Catalogue of sinnes then good workes seeing he should also thinke upon the Sabbath day that he should have no such cheare upon Sunday and so become sorrowfull at that time when he ought the most of all to be merry Al this also is summarily comprehended in a little book called Sepher hajirah teaching us how a Jew ought to lead his life in the feare of the Lord and is delivered by the Jewes themselves in the following verses Against the Sabbath ready thou shalt be To leave all worke that doth belong to thee Thy selfe for Sabbath do prepare its gaine Though many maids and servants thou maintaine The Sabbath equally in all precepts availeth Be of good cheare thinke as thee nought aileth Use neat apparell costly raiments weare For Sabbath of a bride the name doth beare Buy that is daintiest ' gainst the Sabbath's day Strictly observe its precepts every way Keep in good appetite the stomack thine Feed upon fish and flesh and healthy wine Dresse up thy bed in handsome fashion good Order thy table well set on thy food Bath wash and cleanse thy head trim up thy haire About thee never any thing do beare Sharpen thy knife fall stoutly to thy meate Cut off thy nailes fling them in fiery heate Speake blessing to thy wine cleanse hand and foot By this precept thou shalt doe good I wot Be of good mood of comfortable ease Refraine not from thy selfe wherein canst please Merry and withall joyfull shalt thou be As if thy workes all finish'd were by thee Remove thee fro all dumpes and pensivenesse Table and stools have in a readinesse Lay on cleane table cloth and napkins as 't is fit Hasten away your rost-meat from the spit Swill handsomely your cups and drinking glasses Put out of mind your once endured losses Buy the best bit thou find'st upon the Mart With wife and children make a merry heart One table once thus dressed gives thee three meales Talke nothing but of merry making tales c. There is also extant a certaine booke of theirs wherein are contained many graces used by them before and after meat as also upon the chiefe festivals throughout the whole yeare written in Hebrew and Teutonicke verse Amongst others there is one prayer which begins How lovely is thy rest O Lord c. Where it followeth In gallant suit thyselfe aray Blesse candle light so 't will in burning mend From all manner of working flye away On Fryday all thy works bring to an end Eat savoury fâ—shes goodly capons quailes Live delicately see that nothing failes Then against Even thy selfe thus recreate All manner of good things for thee provide Well-fatted beeves and such as likes thy pate From a good cup of spice'd wine doe not slide c. Item In all meeknesse thou shalt walke For of that the Law doth talke With meeknesse all thy lifetime shall be led When Sunne doth rise at leisure keep thy bed c. Item Linnen and silken rayment much is made of Honour'd they be that doe make their clothes thereof An holy day the Sabbath is Happy that keeps it not amisse Bring not your hearts to heavy mournfull courses Although much leannesse lodge within your purses Cheerfull you ought to be and without sorrow Although elsewhere your mony you do borrow Furnish your selves with wine with flesh and fishes Upon your table set three sorts of dishes A good reward for thee will then be hasting Here and in time to come for everlasting c Item Women your candles remember for to light With carefull heed observe this time aright Here of great profit you will make full quickly When great with child you shall come to be fickly If then fine cakes to bake you shall be skilfull At child birth you may play and laugh your wil-full And now lest any should account of these as poeticall figments and fables I will relate some pleasant histories out of the Talmud whereby you may have a plaine evident yea even miraculous demonstration that the pleasure and jocund life upon the Sabbath day is the chiefest honour In that tract of the Talmud entituled de Sabbatho These e words are registred as they came from the mouth of Rabbi Chaia I saith he was upon a time in Cyprus others say in Ladkia where I lodged with a certaine Katzubh or Butcher At the time of supper a table all of gold was brought in which sixteen men were scarce able to carry all the furniture and other necessaries upon the table were of gold the platters candlestickes salts cups and trenchers all of gold with a snmptuous variety of delicates an most excellent apples When the table was set before him he beginning to praise God said The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof When the table was removed he againe singing praises unto God said The heaven is the Lords and the earth hath he given unto the children of men Then I spoke unto him and said Good Sir how came you to be so rich and what good thing have you done in all your life The Master of the houshold the Butcher I meane replyed I have been a Butcher all my life long and whensoever it was my chance to happen upon some choise fatling I alwaies reserved it for the celebration of
the third and last meal upon this day while the day is not yet gone nor the Sabbath altogether come to its period They doe not at this time eate much because their time is short and because they are bound to shut up the Sabbath with thanksgivings Moreover it often fals out that when this meale is provided for them they are not an hungry because they filled their paunhes more largely at dinner which often holds unto the evening These meales or banquets they repute as a thing strictly commanded and for a worke of singular excellenâ—ie and goodnesse conâ—erning which they writing very many things in the Talmud are of opinion That whosoever celebrates them frequently and diligently he shall not taste of hell torments he shall be defended against that most feâ— refull warre of Gog and Magog he shall bee preserved from the trouble and vexation which shall be upon the earth about the comming of the Messias which they call Chebble hammaschiâ—he Between evening and night the use of cleâ—ne water is prohibited neither is it lawfull to drinke of the brooke because the soules of the wicked deceased doe as yet bath and coole themselves therein knowing that they must presently return into hell When the end of the Sabbath approacheth and the third and last repast finished many use suddenly with great expedition to match away the table cloth dreaming that by so doing due reverence shall be exhibited unto them The night inveloping the earth in darknesse they againe assemble themselves to prayer sing sweet Sabbaticall hymns especially that prayer veharacham with a ravishing Nigan their descant resounding in an amiable melody much like the ordinary catter-wauling in the moneth of March and in so doing they chant their farewell to the holy Sabbath They continue these their songs untill much of the night be spent out of pity and compassion towards the soules of the wicked Jewes And that to this end that the longer these their devotions are a finishing the later their returne shall bee into the infernall pit For as upon Friday at eve there is a loud proclamation made in hell that all the wicked should depart the place and goe into the earth to celebrate the Sabbath that all Israel may upon this day rest from their labours So upon Saterday at night so soone as the Jewes have ended their evening prayers a second proclamation goes forth to will and command all damned soules to returne into the place of torment In these their benighted chanting orisons they oftentimes call upon Elias the Prophet saying that he is promised unto them that hee will not come but either upon the Sabbath or some great Festivall Therefore the Sabbath now being past and hee not comming they intreat him that hee will not faile to come upon the next and declare the comming of the Messias Perhaps good Elias is not quick of hearing that he being for so long a time invited yea intreated to come doth not come as yet The Chachamim and skilâ—ull Rabbines also record that Elias the Prophet standing under the tree of life in Paradise registres the merits and good workes of the Jewes wherewith they diligently celebrate the Sabbath Lastly when they sing the certaine song whose beginning is Bâ—â—rechu Then the women make speed unto their owne wels to draw water out of them It is also written that the fountaine Meribah of which they dranke in the desert flowes into the sea of Tyberias and issuing out of it intermingles it selfe with all other fountains Now it comes to passe that any of the Jewish women drawing any of the foresaid water in that instant may use it as a choise ingredient for some excellent medicine Moreover whosoever drinkes of a fountaine so qualified shall have present remedy for any disease yea though his whole body be infected with the french pox Upon a certain time a woman presently upon the ending of the prayer Barechu went to draw waterat that instant the fountaine Meribah presented it selfe unto her for which reason she protracting the time of her returne homeward her husband began to chafe and swell with anger which the woman taking notice of through feare streaming from the fountaine of his choler into the channels of her body made her let the paile of water to slip out of her hand unto the ground whereupon some few cooling drops being by the fall besprinkled upon the diseased body of her raging husband were as so many skilfull Chirurgions to the place they onely touched This the good man got for his anger who if hee had drunke up all the water perhaps he might have gained a finall recovery Hereupon the Rabbines say that an angry man reapes no other profit by his cholerick behaviour but his owne anger In the last place the Jewes make a division and interpose a difference between the Sabbath and the week â—ollowing giving God thanks that he hath given them so much grace as to celebrate the Sabbath in that good manner This is done by their Reader in the Synagogue after evening prayer and this he doth for the poor peoples sake who cannot by reason of their necessity doe it in their owne houses Otherwiâ—e the Master of every private family doth it in his owne dwelling in manner and forme following A great candle is lighted much like unto a Torch which they call Ner habdalah or the candle of division or destruction Then they bring in a little box commonly made of silver full of the best perfumes In the next place the Master of the family takes a cup full of wine but if there be no wine in that country then he takes ale or beer instead thereof and sings with a loud and shrill voice The Lord is my Salvation and my trust I will not feare because he is my strength and my praise God the Lord is my health He hath delivered me out of all my trouble and mine eye hath seen her desire upon mine enemies The Lord of hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our refuge Selah I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. Hee hath been a light unto the Jewes that is to say joy gladnesse and honour These words ended he blesseth the cup and pouring a little of the wine therein upon the ground he saith Blessed bee thou O Lord our God King of the world who hast created the fruit of the vine This done taking the cup in his left hand and the little box full of perfumes in the right and saying Blessed be thou O God who dost create divers kinds of perfumes He puts the box unto his nose to recreate his smell and reacheth it to every one in the family for the same end Then taking the cup againe in his right hand he goes unto the great candle using no small delight in an exquisite contemplation of the nailes upon his fingers so that bending his fingers towards his wrist they cast
the least finger in any thing which may carry any shew of labour with it or which may administer any occasion which may become a provocation to some worke or other So often as they are necessitated as in the winter time to the making of fires at sundry times to the snuffing of candles putting out of their lampes laying their meate to the fire milking their kine and such like they hire some poore serving man who is a Christian to do the same Hence they are wont to glory that they are the sole Lords Masters and Free-men of the Christians vassals and bond-slaves and they who sitting behind a hot furnace shall doe all their workes for them It were therefore in my opinion very meet and convenient that the Christian Magistrates should interdict all those that are their subjects to do any such servile workes for the Jewes either upon the Sabbath or at any other time I should have brought some certaine of their prayers for a conclusion of this Chapter in the most of which they re-member to pray against the Christians Wherein they beseech God that hee would vouchsafe to give unto the Jewes the riches of the Gentiles that he would utterly confound the Ammonites Moabites and Edomites for by this meanes they Christen us at this day that he would smite all people with great feare and vexation and stirre up great warres and tumults among the nations even from the East unto the west But because I have decreed to reserve these and many others for another tract I here omit them and conclude with the saying of the Prophet Isaiah Bring no more vain oblations CHAP. XII How the Jewes prepare themselves to celebrate the Passeover and of the celebration of it HOW the Jewes carry themselves all the weeke long daily practising the duties of modesty and godlinesse hath been hitherto declared Now it followes that wee should speake some things of those solemnities and rites wherewith they are wont to celebrate their Festivals Their feasts are of two sorts some great and famous such as those were which their Ancestours kept and held once every year comming from all quarters to the celebration of it even to Jerusalem and their appearing before the Lord Of this sort was the Feast of the Passeover the Feast of weekes or Pentecost the Feast of Tabernacles which three were commonly called Schelasch Regalim out of the booke of Exodus Other Feasts they use which they keep in those Cities wherein they dwell and inhabite which they call Jomim toâ—im that is to say good dayes The chiefe Feast among them of the first sort is the Passeover which they call by the name of Pesach and is also the first in order for from the moneth in which it is celebrated they begin to reckon their annuall Festivals and that according to the commandement of God in the Law of Moses saying This month shall bee unto you the beginning of months it shall be the first month in the yeare to you Lo the first day of the month Nisan is wherein the New Moone begins her course is the beginning of the yeare from which they begin to reckon and order aright their solemnities Their common yeare takes its beginning from the first of September by them called Tisri in the time of the new moon Hence we read of a foure-fold new yeare in the Talmud The first begins upon the first day of Nisan or March it is the new yeare wherein begins the computation of the reigns of their Kings and celebration of their Feasts The second begins upon the first day of the month Elul or August and is called the new yeare of the bringing up of cattell The third takes its beginning from the first day of Schebeth or January and it is called the new yeare for trees Rabbi Hillel saith that this year begins on the fifteenth day of the foresaid moneth The last is called the New yeare of yeares to wit of the yeare of remission of Jubilee of the planting of trees and herbes and it begin upon the first of Tisri or September So much the Talmud Which is thus to bee understood The yeare of Kings is that yeare according to which they reckon the yeares of their reigne in all Contracts Indentures Bils and Bonds made in the yeare of such or such a King so that though any King do begin his reigne a month onely or a weeke yea but a day before the first of March yet is time reckoned unto him for a whole yeare and the first of March next ensuing they begin to write the second year of his reign In the same manner the first day of March is the time from whence they begin to number their annuall Feasts and holidaies So the Feast of the Passeover is kept in the first moneth the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh moneth and so forth 2. The beginning of August begins the yeare of the bringing up of their cattell from whence they begin to reckon the yeare and moneth in which such and such a beast was brought forth so that by this meanes they more easily pay tithe unto the Lord. 3. The first day of the new Moon in September is the beginning of yeares because from this day they have alwaies begun the computation of years from the Creation of the world to this present time The yeare of rest or remission which was the seventh yeare or Sabbaticall yeare when their fields and vines were suffered to keepe holiday took its beginning from the first day of this month as also the yeare of Jubilee which was every fiftieth yeare celebrated of which you may read in the twenty fifth Chapter of the third book of Moses From this also they began to account the times wherein they planted or grafted trees or herbes So when any tree was planted in the moneth of June then the first yeare of its planting ended in August and the second began in September c. the tree being accounted as uncleane and uncirâ—umâ—ised untill three yeares were past and gone Lastly The first day or according to Rabbi Hillel the fifteenth of January did begin the new yeare of trees and fruits for according to the time that the trees before or after this day did bring forth their fruits so were they permitted or not permitted to be eaten and according to this supputation they payed their tiâ—hes also The fruits ripening before the beginning of this month are dates and orenges and such like which were lawfull to bee eaten the yeare not run out But they which brought forth fruit which was not come to its full growth the yeare not yet ended it was not permitted unto any to eat thereof before the fifteenth day of January They payed tithes in like manner of the former sort but not of these This is at large handled in the fore-cited place of the Talmud Antonius Margarita in his booke of the faith of the Jewes saith that
extinguished for it is a hainous wickednesse to cut off that part of the candle with a knife which he would have saved A Jew is not permitted to invite any Christian upon any Festivall by reason he might be necessitated to boile and seeth more then ordinary or to undertake some other labour which may dishonour the day by a profanation If a Christian come by chance then it is good manners and also relisheth of hospitality for the Jew to invite him It is not lawfull to fast upon a Feasting day both to avoid evill dreams as also by reason of the command Thou shalt be merry in thy Feasts and it is very meet it should be so which cannot bee done with an empty stomack for musick in the guts makes the heart merry contrariwise and for the foresaid reason a man may fast upon the Sabbath for the Sabbath is stiled by the name of Oneg which signifies a delight and if he fast thereupon it is delightfull unto him seeing hereby he shall not bee cumbered with fearfull dreames but his heart shall overflow with joy and gladnesse It is also lawfull to weep upon the Sabbath even to the satiating of the appetite which is prohibited upon any Festivall for then his spleen ought to overflow with laughter which will not admit of teares for a joint companion If any stuffe a hen or capon and sew up the place with a needle he may burne off but not cut the thread also provided that hee thread the needle the day before The platters which are used for breakfast may not be washed for to serve at supper but clean ones are to be taken It is not permitted to hunt hauke or fish yea although a Christian have caught them and offer them in sale unto a Jew he may not lawfully eate thereof so long as the Feast endures but as for hens and geese and others which are fatted at home they may lawfully kill and eat them There is also no small controversie amongst them whether a man may eate a new laid egge as also fruites plucked from the tree and herbes rooted out of the earth upon the day of Feast Furthermore concerning the killing of beasts cleaving of wood making a fire tinding of the same boiling baking miâ—king of kine and such like of which there is a peculiar tract extant in the Talmud called Betza or a disputation about the eating of eggs There are divers opinions concerning the question The Schoole or Sect of Schammai affirmeth that it is lawfull to eat an egg laid upon the day of the Festivall Hillell avouchâ—th the contrary which hath caused many a jarring dispute among the Rabbines All which are decided in the book called Orach chajim At eventide they returne into the Synagogue for to pray which they doe with so great hast as though they were following their enemies in flight the reason is because they are to boile their meat after evening prayer which they are to eat at supper The day following they celebrate with the same pompe and solemnity that they did the former because then they are uncertaine which is the first day of the new moon in March and consequently which is the fourteenth thereof The celebration therefore of the Feast of the Passeover holds for the space of two daies together that they may not commit an error in the keeping thereof If any one chance in these two daies to finde any leaven in his house he must cover it with a dish or platter and the day following to burn it If any have ducks hens geese or doves about his house he must cast the corne wherewith hee feeds them in a wet place for if some should be left and it should chance to encrease hee is held guilty of sowing graine upon the Sabbath day Next after these in order follow four other daies which are only halfe holy daies and are called by the name of common-Festivals upon which they may do some workes but not all which is also much disputed and the question stated in Orach chajim as for instance It is lawfull to do those things upon this day which being undone are subject to perish and also some dammage may follow thereupon as the milking of kine and such like It is permitted to cut the haire of a young man which is denied to an old one He that hath but one shirt may wash it so that he doe it in private and the mother may also wash the childrens clouts to smooth their linnen and collars â—o make cleane their shooes to sharp their knives to write a letter so that he write the lines crooked and many other works he may lawfully undergoe so that the manner of doing may be somewhat singular that a difference may bee put between the labours of the weeke and the Festivall Amongst other things many have allowed the paring of nailes as upon these daies but the most religious among them seeing it to be a matter of great difficulty have onely permitted women which are to purge themselves by washing from their uncleannesse to practise it for they are bound upon the day of their purification to cut the nailes of their hands and feet lest some impure thing might lurke under them The seventh day of the Festivall is holy according to the Law of Moses wherein it is written The first day shall bee holy unto you in it you shall doe no manner of worke except that which every man must eate that onely may be done of you Upon this day they repaire to the Synagogue to offer up their morning and evening sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving Taking the booke of the Law in a pompous manner and putting the same into the Arke againe boasting thereof in a wonderfull manner and because they are uncertaine which is the seventh day therefore they hallow with an equall celebration the seventh and eighth which time expired they bring againe leavened bread into their houses that God may see that they obey his commandements and stretch out the Feast no longer then he hath enjoned After this the men must fast for three daies two Mundaies and one Thursday That if any one have drunke too much in the time of the Feast or have any other way profaned it he may doe pennance for the fact For thirty daies after the passeover the Jewes carry foule weather in their face are very sorrowfull make no marriages neither cutting their haire nor going into any bath And that for the sake of Akibha an excellent and learned Rabbine who had 24 thousand schollars who all dyed beeween Easter and Pentecost because one emulated and envied despised backbited detracted another not any way exhibiting those debts of love and honour to the paiment of which they are lyable All the foresaid persons dyed in the night time and were buried by the women for which cause they cease from labour at Sunne set and hallow the night following Upon the thirty third day after the passeover the Jewes have a great
Hakkemach or a Barrell of Meale saith that these foure things shaddow out unto us foure Kingdomes to wit That of the Assyrians that of the Persians that of the Grecians and the now extant Monarchy of the Romans which last is typified unto us by the willowes To put a period to these subtiâ—ties I will relate a story out of the Talmud concerning the adorning of these their Tabernacles and it is a certain conference or dialogue which God shal have with al people at the day of doom It is found in the Tract entituled Abhodahzarah or of Idolatry In these words At the last day God shall say that onely the Jewes are just and holy as they who have fulfilled the Law of God in every part and degree but all other people of the earth are ungodly and unjust as neither having the Law nor doing the workes presribed to bee done in the same Then shall the people of the earth answer and say O Lord God of the whole world give unto us that law and wee will in every point and parcell observe and keep it Then God will reply O foolish Christians doe you not know the old Proverbe that hee who labours upon the eve of the Sabbath shall have whereon to feed upon the Sabbath but hee that is idle and sits still shall want Goe yee therefore and first of all fulfill that little commandement of mine called Sukkah concerning the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles Then every one of them shall run in all hast and make unto himselfe a booth or Tabernacle some upon their house tops as the Jewes were wont to doe in ancient daies in their owne land where the roofe was flat and plaine others in their gardens and they shall dwell in them Then shall God so mightily encrease the heat of the Sun at Midsomer and so forward that they shall be scorâ—hed and burnt and being not able to endure the heat shall trample these their booths under their feete and being mightily enflamed with anger shall cry out Let us break their bonds in sunder and csast away their cords from us Then God shall flout jeer and deride them as it is written in the same place Hee that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorne the most high shall have them in derision And hence Rabbi Isaac affirmes that it is never found that God is said to laugh but upon that day onely So farre the Talmud By which relation we may plainly perceive how these apish Jewes hug and please themselves in their own folly and how they would even in a manner force God to beleeve that they onely are his chosen and elect people who keep the whole law observing and fulfilling all his commandements when on the contrary the Christians and other people are men appointed to destruction and damnation reputed as a laughing stocke and abomination in the eyes of the Lord. But O silly Jew what saith Ezekiel of thee and thy observance of the Law hearken what the Lord saith by the mouth of his Prophet I caused them saith he to go forth out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wildernesse and I gave them my statutes and shewed them my judgements which if a man doe hee shall live in them Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths to bee a a signe between mee and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth them But the house of Israel rebelled against mee in the wildernesse they walked not in my judgements which if a man doe he shall even live in them and my Sabbaths they greatly polluted Then I said I would poure out my fury upon them in the wildernesse CHAP. XVII Of the Feast of the New Moone HItherto we have treated of the chiefe Festivals usualâ—y solemnized by the Jewes at Jerusalem in ancient daies and of the manner of their celebration by the Jewes of these our times We come now to speake of those Feasts which their Ancestors were wont to keep in the Cities and places where they had their dwelling and setled habitation We will begin with the Feast of the New Moon which they solemnize once every month The first day of every New Moon was in old time accounted holy because God commanded that in the beginning of their months they should offer unto him a burnt offering as we may reade in the fourth book of Moses Yet is this day to the Jewes now living onely halfe holiday so that they may worke or not worke at their owne pleasure It is also recorded that the command for the celebration of this Feast is rather given to the women then men so that they ought upon this day to abstaine from all manner of labour because in times past they would not give their golden earâ€rings and other ornaments to the making of the molten calfe when on the contrary they offered them with a willing and ready minde yea also their rings and bracelets towards the building of the Temple whose first stone was laid the first of March Upon the eâ—e of this Festivall all they that are of a pious and honest carriage among the Jewes fast untill eâ—enâ€tide praying unto God that hee would vouchsafe to send them a joifull and happy New Moon The next morning being that of the Festivall they goe into the Synagogue where they make many prayers yea more then they are wont to do upon other Festivals At midâ€day they goe to dinner at which they become very jocund cocking their beavers and sitting very long for which they urge Moses saying In the day of your gladnesse and in your solemn dayes and in the beginning of your months yee shall blow with the trumpets over the burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peaceâ€offerings that they may bee to you a memoriall before your G O D. And to the end that they may sit the longer at the Table they play at Cards almost all the day long passe away the time in jesting and merry-making the eclipse of the Moon they hold as a signe very ominous to them that trouble them Wherefore they commonly fast upon the day of the eclipse entreating God to save and defend them from all their enemies and them that hate them When the Moon is three dayes old or more they gather themselves together upon the night into some one of their Gardens or else into their street where they may clearly see the Moon lifting up their eyes to Heaven the posture of their body being exactly upright they blesse the Moon one of their chief Rabbines repeating a certain prayer and the rest saying after him as followeth Blessed be thou O Lord God our God King of the World who hast sanctified us by thy word and by the spirit of thy mouth who hast created the heaven and all the host thereof given laws thereunto and prescribed certain seasons in which they obey thy commandments measuring out aright the times and seasons
and religious who have done as much good as evil Those who are perfectly just have their names presently registred in the book of life but they who are extremely wicked have their names written in the book of death Those of the middle sort are deferred and put off untill the day of reconciliation which is the tenth day after the celebration of the feast of the new year If they truly and sincerely repent them of their sins in the mean time so that their good deeds exceed their bad ones then it goes well with them but if on the contrary their evil deeds be more in number then they are presently put in the catalogue of the reprobate and damned As it is written Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written among the just By the blotting out of the book understanding the book of the wicked and by the word life or living the book of the just and by the words Let them not be written among the just the book of those who are indifferently honest Hence is also that of Ralig bbi Nalig chman the son of Isaac upon these words of Moses Now if thou wilt palig rdon their sin thy mercy shall appear But if thou wilt not blot me out of the book which thou hast written In which words Blot out fingers out the book of the wicked Out of thy book the book of the just Which thou hast written the book of them which are indifferently just and godly So far the Talmud 1. Now that God should at this time sit in judgment rather then at any other the reason is grounded upon a certain tradition of the Antients that God created the whole world Adam and placed him in Paradise in the moneth of September therefore it was thought very meet and just that God at the years end should require of man an account of his life and see how he hath carried himself for the space of the year past and so reward every one according to his works Which he paies unto every one in the year following in this manner Sins are of divers sorts some God punishes in this world some also in the life to come so also good works some whereof are recompenced here some hereafter Now if a man for the most part doe nothing els but sin all the year long polluting his soul with the horrid filth of wickedness yet doing some few good deeds the sum of all is presented before Gods tribunal upon new-years day 1. Then God takes the scales and puts his good deeds in one end and his bad deeds in another If it seem good then to the Judge of all men to reward the foresaid man for the good he hath found in him in this present world it cometh to pass that he is called a just man and hath this happy sentence pronounced upon him in this vale of misery that he shall have a name in the book of life live for the next year become rich and shall be advanced to great honours 1. In like manner if an honest and just man who every day makes a conscience of his wayes and lives according to the law all the year through offend and commit some gross enormities for which God is pleased to punish him in this world then God calls him a wicked and unjust liver and pronounceth sentence against him for evil and not for good puts his name into the book of the dead thereby giving him notice that he shall either die or become poor or be troubled with some dangerous disease the year following and therefore although a man may enjoy the happiness of Saints in the world to come yet may he be called with injustice in this seeing he is here punished for his offences even as the reprobate And on the contrary one here accounted just and holy may be ordained to damnation because God gives him the reward of his workes in this present world And therefore no man ought to wonder or account it a strange thing that the godly suffer affliction and all manner of distress in this present life when on the contrary the wicked lives as he list gives rest unto his soule enjoyes pleasure and is without the gunshot of sorrow and vexation yet at the day of death the case is altered for he that was here so gay and gallant must goe into everlasting fire and the other so miserable into enternal bliss God then paying unto them the due reward of their labours And this is the very reason why the Germara affirms that the three foresaid books are opened upon new-years day Furthermore it often falls out that one good work blots out a number of transgressions and one sin abolisheth many good works both which are in the power of God If the sinner whose name is put into the book of death repent him of his wayes from the bottom of his heart and continue in this course unto the day of reconciliation being the tenth of the new-year he may happily moue God to reverse the sentence pronounced against him and to transferr him into the book of life Even as the godly in the same space angering his Maker by the commission of some hainous offence may move him to blot his name out of the book of life and to write it among the dead Thus the blindfolded Jews write speak and are conceited of the Almighties rule and government making him a Judge of that stampe and quality which they desire him to be of far contrary to the description of the Prophet David who in heavie cheer praying unto God for the forgiveness of his sins cries out Enter not into judgment with thy servant O Lord for no man living shall be justified in thy sight And again If thou O Lord marke whalig t is done amiss who is able to abide it Seeing therefore God sits in judgment upon every new-years-day and so severely punisheth the transgressors of his commandements the Rabbines have made it an Ordinance and Statute in Israel that every one should for a moneth before repent of his sins and the evil he hath committed turn from his wicked wayes and begin to lead a new life This therefore the Jews put in execution and upon the first day of Elul or August they fall to a serious account calling all their sins to remembrance and weighing them according to every several circumstance in which they have wickedly transgressed through the whole circuit of the year Whosoever then every day before he eat or drink questions his soule what it hath done and with a diligent scrutinie searches every corner of his heart for some formerly practised wickedness grieving very much and being very heartily sorry for the same he shall upon New-years-day when others are to give an account for their offences receive a plenary absolution And hence it is that the Jews dwelling among the Walloones at this day have a custome to rise every morning of this moneth
no rivers they dig a well in their cellar or garden concerning the breadth and depth whereof they are diverse in opinion as also how much water may be contrived in the same At eventide they likewise repair unto the Synagogue where they continue praying untill it be night at what time the feast begins welcoming it with great joy and many acclamations So much for the preparation now for the feast it self but before we give you any tast thereof hearken what the Prophet saith concerning these men of Juda Your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear No man calleth for justice no man contendeth for truth they trust in vanity and speak vain things they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity They hatch Cockatrice eggs and weave the spiders web He that eateth of their eggs dieth and that which is trodden upon breaketh out into a Serpent CHAP. XIX Of the Feast of the New-Year NEw-years-day according to the Jewish Almanack falls continually upon the first day of September which is the beginning of their civil year according to which account they date all their bils contracts and bargains This computation they ground upon the time of the creation of the world which was as they affirm upon the first of September Soe that they now reckon the years from the creation to be five thousand three hundred eighty foure or thereabouts Whence we may see how far they vary in their number from the Christians even by the space of two hundred twenty three years This first day of September is to be sanctified and kept holy by the Jews being a thing commanded by God himself saying Speak unto the children of Israel and say In the seventh moneth in the first day of the moneth shall you have a Sabbath for the remembrance of blowing the trumpets an holy convocation Ye shall do no servile work therein but offer sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord. Though Moses make no mention of the new-year in these words yet following an ancient tradition of their ancestors they begin their civil year as upon this day being the first of September which is the seventh moneth accounting from March in which begins the new-year of their festivals The chief reason why it is called the feast of trumpets is because the Priests in old time were wont as this day to repair to the Temple and blow upon trumpets that hereby the people might be warned and pricked forward to render thanks unto God with a chearful and merry heart for the blessings and favours plentifully powred upon them in the year last past that he hath preserved them in safety and redeemed their souls from death and that with fear and trembling truly repenting them of their misled life they may appear before God upon the day of reconciliation upon which an attonement is to be made between God and his people The Jews at this day instead of a trumpet use a Rams horn the reason whereof shall hereafter be related The manner of the Celebration followeth After evening prayer they begin the feast by the consecration of a bowl of wine and a certain prayer appointed for the day they account it as a signe of good luck if their wine be new and sweet Every one salutes his fellow with God send you a good new-year or pointing to the books of which we made mention in the former chapter they say Thou art registred for one who shall be partaker of a prosperous year to whom the other makes answer and you also that is as much as if he had said The Greator of heaven and earth hath ordained thee for a good new-year The little children run unto the chief Rabbine and aske him blessing upon whom he laies his hands and prayes unto God to send them an happy year From the Synagouge to their own houses where they finde the table neatly spread and sumptuously furnished and that with no small deal of provision They presently fall aboard the first dish whereupon they make an assault is a Platter full of dainty Apples steeped in Honey of which every one tasting a bit saith God send us a merry New-year then proceeding with great jollity and mirth to the stuffing of their empty guts Amongst other things the fore-mentioned Rams-horn is laid upon the table in remembrance of the Ram which being catched in the thickets was sacrificed by Abraham in the place of Isaac Others write that they lay it upon the table to signifie that they shall become the head and not the tail according to that promise of the Lord by Moses The Lord shall make thee head and not the tail and thou shalt be above onely and not beneath Which promise is made indeed unto the Jews but with that condition to keep all his Commandments to observe and do them But they understood a mastery and dominion over the Christians to be the tenor thereof which that it may come to pass they daily pray to God above They eat fish for the most part of the best sort they can procure upon this night to shew that their good works merits shall multiply and increase even as the fishes in the sea Fruits of all kinds are no novelty unto them as Almonds Cucumbers Grapes Gourds Leeks Lupines sweet yet grosse pulse and such like The Leeks represent their enemies because they shall be rooted out of the earth and perish utterly for the Leek in the Chaldee tongue is called Crate which is derived from a Verb signifying to Cut and hereupon when they have eaten their Leeks they say Let all our enemies all them that hate us be uttterly cut off When they eat the sweet Pulse which they call Silka they say Let our enemies perish from among the midst of us When they eat the Almonds which they call Timarim they say Let our enemies be consumed and blotted out When they eat the Gourds called Kara they say Let every evil thing which is definitely determined against us be abolished and come to nothing and let our good works and deservings be read and published before the God of heaven The morning come they repair to the Synagogue more early then at other times singing many Psalms and saying many Prayers They take the book of the Law twice out of the Ark reading some sections out of it as in imitation of Ezra who did the like Nehemiah 8. but God knows in a far different manner After their Haphtarah or Lecture out of the Prophets is ended one goes up into the Pulpit and sounding the Rams horns at several times distinctly bellows out thereupon thirty words some with an equal others with an interrupted tone If the trumpet give a shrill and pleasant sound they take as a certain signe that a good and a happy year will then befal them but if on the contrary the sound be dull and hollow or perhaps none at all it
of God and a good work to fill their Panches and cram their Guts this night with the Cocks and Capons and soundly to liquor their throats then to fast the day following Alwayes provided that supper be ended before sun-set for then the feast of reconciliation begins and they are to dress themselves in neat and fine cloathing upon which they weare a surplice or garment of choise linnen coming down unto their feet hereby shewing unto other that the next day they shall be pure and clean from their sins and offences and like unto the Angels These garments they put on in honour to the festival the celebration of which consists not in eating and drinking being sottishly ignorant that the worship of God is of more worth then either Hence it is that the Lord complains by the mouth of his Prophet Hear O heavens and harken O earth for the Lord hath said I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse his masters crib but Israel hâ—th not known my people have not understood Ah sinful nation ab people laden with iniquity a seed of the wicked corrupt children they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the holy one of Israel to anger they are gone backward What have I to doe with the multitude of your Sacrifices saith the Lord Hosea also saith O I srael return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Take unto you words and turn unto the Lord and say unto him Take away all our iniquity and receive us graciously and so will we render unto thee the calves of our lips So much of the preparation to the feast of reconciliation CHAP. XXI Of the Feast of Reconciliation COncerning the institution of this feast we may finde it recorded in the third book of Moses that the tenth day of the siventh moneth shall be a day of reconciliation it shall be an holy convocation unto you speaking to the Israelites you shall humble your soules and offer sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord And ye shall do no work that same day for it is a day of Reconciliation to make an attonement for you before the Lord your God For every person that humbleth not himself the same day shall even be cut off from his people And every person that shall doe any worke that same day the same person also will I destroy from among his people Ye shall do no manner of work therefore this shall be a law for ever in your generations throughout your dwellings By reason of this injunction and command the Jews at this day are wont to meet in their Synagogue about sunset before it be night carying with them their wax lights and placing them in their Candlesticks singing and praying with a beastly roaring and bellowing outcries The women which stay at home to keep the house light many candles in the bed chambers and other places blessing them and stretching out both their hands towards them as they do also upon the sabbath hereby making a difference between the festival dayes and others appointed for ordinary employments and manual labours If these lights burn clear they take it as a very good signe of some consequent hap believing that their sins are remitted that they shall see many happy dayes and not come as yet into the prison of the grave If they give not a clear light but that which is only glimmering dark and obscure if they melt away the tallow or wax distilling drop by drop then they begin to be sorrowful conjecturing this to be a signe of some evill ready to befall them They spread their floores pavements and hearths with Coverlets in some places as in Wormes they straw their hearths with rushes only lest they upon the day following by often stooping to the fire to chafe and rub themselves might defile and spot their holiday attire or otherwise lest they should seem to commit Idolatry which is altogether unlawful the reason hereof is that which is written You shall not pave your pavement with stone to bow and prostrate your selves thereupon That it is said in the forecited text of Moses that they ought to humble themselves before the Lord they understand to be meant of a five-fold kinde of pleasure from which they are to abstain And first of all from meat and drink even from sunset to ssnset from the beginning to the ending of the solemnity Boyes above twelve and wenches above eleven years of age women also who have been above three dayes in child-bed are not exempted from this fast A sick man may eat lawfully if he desire it If not the Physitian thinking it meet and convenient for the regaining of his health meat is to be administred unto him Secondly every one is bound to goe without shoes barefoot only it is permitted unto old decrepit and sickly persons to whose health the coldness of the season may bring hurt and dammage Thirdly no man ought at this time to annoint himself with oyle or wash his body with water for pleasures sake Fourthly no man must enter into a bath to wash himself no he may not be allowed to dip his finger in the water much less to wash his hands or face Yet if any have occasion to ease himself after the deed done he may dip his fingers into the water so that he goe no farther then the formost joynt Some take a wet linen cloth and make clean their hands therewith yet it is accounted as a thing very dangerous and neerly coming within the confines of an offence for if the cloth should chance to be so wet as the drops of water might be pressed out of it it were enough to prophanâ— the festival Fiftly the men must not come at their wives no not so much as touch them and keep themselves out of their company as though they were in their monethly flowers Before they begin their solemn prayers usually made by them after sunset at the begining of this festival three of the chief Rabbines walking through the Synagogue saying with a loud voice Bischibhah schel mahelah ubischibhah schel mattah etc. the meaning of which words is that they give power and license to the whole congregation as well to the bad as the good among them to pray unto God To this end also the Chaunter goes unto the Ark where the book of the law is kept opens it and saies a long prayer which begins Col nidere Vaâ—ssare uschehue that is to say All Vowes Covenants and Oaths c. the first part whereof he repeats three times every time with a more lofty and joy resounding voice then other The sum whereof is that all the vows oaths promises covenants asseverations and protestations which any one of the Jewish nation hath not kept the year past to be void remitted disanulled the breach thereof not to be acknowledged for an offence to be utterly taken away and pardoned
the Chasan or the Minister expounding the book of Esther reads it from end to end whereat the women and children ought to be present and give diligent attention and they have a custome that the little ones so often as Haman is named keep a vile stir and a tumultuous noise in the terrible and forcible explosion thereof In former times they were wont to provide themselves two stones upon one of which the name of Hamâ—â— was written These they did beat one against the other until the name was quite demolished and worn out which when they perceved they presently cried aloud Let his name be blotted out The name of the wicked shall rot Accursed be Haman Blessed be M â—rdecai Cursed be Zeresh the wife of Haman Blessed be Esther the wife Ahâ—suerus Cursed be all they that worship idols or the host of heaven Blessed be all the people of Isnael When the Lecturer comes to that place where mention is made of the ten sons of Hamau he is bound to read it with one breath for they write that all these sons of Haman perished in the twinkling of an eye and their souls in a very moment took their farewel of their beloved lodging the body They celebrate this Feast in a very voluptuous manner sousing their guts in wine and beer because Esther the Queen found favour and grace in the eyes of King Abasuerus when he sate at her banquet and obtained pardon for the Jews and a grant that they might stand for their lives And hence it comes to pass that for the space of these two dayes they busie themselves with no other things then eating and drinking smelling and bibbing dancing and piping singing and roaring ieasting and sporting riming and scoffing the women putting on mens apparrell and the men clothing themselves in womens attire which although it be expresly forbid in the law of Moses yet they make there one exception saying that it is lawful and no offence to practise it upon this day and this occasion seeing it is done by them only for worldly joy and recreation Rabbi Isaac â—irna in this Minhagim hath left in record to posterity that it is commanded as a work of great excellency to make merry as upon these dayes to goe a whoring to drink and be drunke yea in that measure that he cannot make any difference between Mordecai the blessed and Haman the accursed that is to say untill he be so besotted with the ale tappe that he cannot for his heart declare how many letters be contained in any of these words yea moreover any one is permitted at this time to poure in strong drink until he knowes not how many fingers he hath on either hand Which precept indeed is most diligently observed and kept according to the very rigour thereof by the Jews at this day and that chiefly by the beggerly crew to whom the richer sort send gifts and presents in a far greater measure then they do at other times to the end that one may not mock another for being drunk bein commanded and strictly prohibited to send away their meat and drink to any other end and purpose With these Bacchanal rites drunken fits and besotting beastliness they put an end to their annual feasts For this of Purim is the last festival in the year having no more until the feast of the passover If the Prophet Isaiah were alive at this day or should rise from the dead truly and really might he take occasion and that both forcible and urgent to cry out Woe and class unto them that rise up early to follow drunkenness and to them that continue until the night till the wine do inflame them CHAP. XXV Of the feasting dayes in use among the Jews HItherto we have treated of feasting fasting succeeds In the law of Moses there is only one fast commanded to be kept by the Jews which is upon the tenth of September upon which the feast of reconciliation is annually kept and celebrated as was formerly declared Besides this it is registred in ancient records that many other fasting dayes were instituted and ordained by the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets according as the time required And Zachary the Prophet who lived after the building of the second Temple makes mention of foure general fasts in these words Thus saith the Lord of hosts the fast of the fourth moneth the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall â—e to the house of Judah joy and gladness The fast of the tenth moneth was usually and is to this day kept by the Jews upon the tenth day of the same to wit December because upon this Neâ—uchaddnezar began to besiege Jerusalem with armies and to afflict the Jews with great trouble and calamities The fast of the fourth moneth was and is kept to this day upon the seventeenth day thereof because upon this they endured many great afflictions which are not yet disgested For as upon this day the tables of the law were broken the daily sacrifice ceased the book of the law was burnt an Idol the abomination of desolation was set up in the holy place the temple of Jerusalem The city it self besieged the second time overthrown and taken For these causes the Jews in these our dayes fast very devoutly begin seriously and earnestly to repent them of their former life if a man may believe the external gesture from which it is no doubt but their heart is too too much a roving The dayes following this fast even unto the ninth day of the next moneth are accounted ominous and unfortunate upon these no school-master must dare to whip his boyes If any Jew also have a case to be tried by the law between him and a Christian at this time he seeks all manner of evasion and excuse that he may not appear before the Judg untill these dayes be expired fearing lest his cause should fail and not prove good and he be overthrown therein The fast of the fift moneth is kept upon the ninth day of July because upon this very day the temple was burnt and turned into ashes In the time here of they goe barefoot sitting upon the earth reading doleful stories and the lamentations of Jeremy They goe into the place of burial where they sob out their doleful accents of grief and sorrow amidst the sorrowful consort of departed souls bewailing the desolations of their beautiful temple with sighs and grones for a moneth together From the first day until the tenth they neither eat flesh nor drink wine they enter not the bath wash their face or hands or suffer any rasor to come upon their head They do not make any marriages appear not in judgment but sore against their wills complaining and crying out that they had never any good hap or fortune in this moneth which they prove out of the Prophet Hosea saying A moneth shall devoure them with their portions Upon
long as the oake or other of that kinde for saith the lord as the dayes of a tree are the dayes of my people and my elect shall long enioy the works of their hands and againe there shall be no more thence an infant of dayes nor an old man that hath not filled his dayes for the child shall die an hundred yeares old bnt the Sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed which is as much as to say if any die at an hundred years of age it shall be said of him that he died as a little infant or in his infancy for at that time the years of life of the Israelites shall be equal to them of the fathers from Adam to Noah as Abenezra comments upon the place The ninth is that God shall so clearly manifest himself to the Israelites that they shall see him face to face As it is recorded The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see together because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Yea all the Lords people shall be Prophets as it is written It shall come to pass afterward that I will powr out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie your old men shall dream dreams your yong men shall see visions The last degree of comfort is that God shall quite root out of them all imbred lusts and inclinations unto evil as it is written A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh Hitherto we have delivered what we promised out of the book called Abhkas râ—chel in which though it be summarily set down what the Jews beleeve concerning their Messias as also the manner how he is to bring them back to Jerusalem yet I think not impertinent in this place a litle more largely to declare with what solemnities their Messias shal give them intertainement in their own land and with what happiness and felicitie they shall lead their lives under him When then the Messias hath gathered all the Jews together out of all the nations under heaven and from the foure winds of the earth and hath brought them unto the land of Canaan flowing with milk and hony then shall he cause to be prepared a sumptuous and delicate banquet inviting and friendly welcoming unto it all the Jews with great pomp and joy inexpressible At this banquet shall be dished up and served in the greatest beastes fishes and fouls that ever God created The worst wine that they shall drink shall be that whose grape had its growth in paradise and hath been barrel'd up and reserved in Adams Cellar unto that time The first dish in this feast shall be that huge oxe described in the book of Job to be of such great strength and magnitude named Behemoth This the Rabbines affirme to be the same oxe whereof David makes mention in his 50 Psalm and 10 verse All the beasts of the forrest are mine and the cattel Behemoth feeding on a thousand hills that is to say which every day eateth up the grass of a thousand hils But a man will aske what at length would have become of this oxe if he had lived so long seeing he had long since eaten up all his fodder The Rabbines learnedly answer that this oxe is stall-fed and remains always in the same place and that whatsoever he eateth on the day grows again upon the night in the same length and forme The second dish adorning the table shall be that vast whale Leviathan according to the Jewish tone Pronounced Lipiasan who is also described in the book of Job and mentioned in other places of holy writ Concerning these two beasts there hath bin handsomly compiled this tradition by the wit and ingenuity of the solid pated Rabbins in their Talmud it runs thus Rabbi Jehudah saith that what thing soever God created in the world he created it male and female and that without all doubt for he created the Leviathan yet least the he and she Leviathan by engendring should augment the number and at length by there monstrous magnitude and multitude destroy the whole world God gelded the male and killed the female reserving her in pickle to be meat for them that are just in Judah and feared him in the dayes of the Messias as it is written In that day will the lord with a sore and great and strong sword punish Leviathan the piercing serpent even Leviathan that crooked serpent and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea In the same manner he created that great ox called Behemoth feeding on a thousand hils male and female yet lest by multiplying they might fill and destroy the earth he gelded the male and killed the female reserving it for the Jewes diet in time to come as it is written Loe now his strength is in his loynes and his force in the navell of his belly he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him The third dish in this banquet as Elias Levita in his dictionarie named Tesbi out of the Rabbins reports shall be that horrible huge bird called Barinchue which killed and unboweld shall then be rosted Concerning this bird it is written in the Talmud she cast an Egge out of her nest by whose fall three hundred tall Cedars were broken down and the Egge breaking in the full drowned three score villages By this relation it is easie to conceive this bird to have been little inferiour in greatnes to the forementioned oxe and fish whence we may also collect how glorious a dish the Messias is to make of it for his guests and when there are many such birds Guls I think found in the land of Judah none ought to think that which is reported of this to be fabulous In the forementioned book of the Talmud we read of a certain great crow which was seen of a Rabbine worthy to be credited The relation runs thus Rabbi barchannah saith At a certain time I saw a frog which is as great as the village Akra in Hagronia well how big was the village It consisted of no fewer then threescore houses Then came a mighty serpent and swallowed up this frog Instantly upon this a great crow flying that way picked up as a small morsel both the frog and the serpent and taking him to flight sat upon a Tree now think with your selves how great and strong this tree must be To which Rabbi papa the son of Samuel making answer unless I had been in the place and with these mine eyes seen the very tree I would not have beleeved it Thus much the Talmudist Who dare give the lie to this Rabbine When that good man Kimchi commenting on the fifty Psalm and explaining the word Ziz hath there witnessed that Rabbi
the sound of this trumpet shall blast the Christians and people of the world with fear and astonishment casting them into horrid maladies Then shall the Jews gird up their loins and with many a weary journey seek to revisite their Jerusalem Messias also the son of David together with his harbinger Elias and all the faithfull his followers in Israell with great joy shall come into Jerusalem So soon as this pierceth the ears of wicked Armillus he will babble out how long will this abject and base people thus behave themselves and shall once more with a great army of Christians hasten to Jerusalem to give battel to to their newly inaugurated soveraign But God shall not permit that the Israelites should fall out of the fire into the pit but speaking unto the Messias shall say unto him Come thou and sit at my right hand and to the children of Israel sit you still hold your peace and quietly expect that great deliverance which the Lord this day will impart unto you Then shall the Lord rain from heaven fire and brimstone as it is recorded I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood and I will rain upon him and upon his bands and upon the many people that are with him an overflowing rain and great hailstones fire and brimstone Then shall Armillus with his whole army die and the Atheistical Edomites the Christians they mean who laid waste the house of our God and led us captive into a strange land shall miserably perish then shall the Jews be revenged upon them as it is written The house of Jacob shall be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame and the house of Esau that is we Christians as the Jews interpret whom they ' Christen Edomites shall be for stubble This stubble the Jews shall set in fire that nothing may be left to us Edomites which shall not be burnt and turned into ashes The ninth miracle At the second blast of Michael his trumpet being long and loud all the graves in Jerusalem shall open and the dead arise Messias also the son of David together with Elias the Prophet shall restore to life Messias that good son of Joseph reserved under a certain gate At the same time shall all the Congregation of Israel send Messias the son of David as an Embassador to the remnant of the Jews superviving the last slaughter dispersed here and there among the Christians and other people of the earth to summon them to Jerusalem Then shall the kings of the nations without delay carry the Jews inhabiting their quarters upon their shoulders and in Chariots unto Sion I think this will come to pass much about the Greek Calends The tenth miracle At what time the Angel Michael shall blow the trumpet the third time then shall God bring them forth who border upon the rivers Gosane Lachlacke Chabore and also inhabited the cities of Juda and they in number infinite and immesurable together with their infants shall enter into Moses Paradise the earth before and behinde them shall be nothing but a flame of fire which shall consume all which is needful for the preservation of life among the Christians and other people When the ten tribes of Israel shall return out of the land of their captivity then the pillar of the cloud of the divine glory and majesty shall encompass them as it is written the breaker up is come before them they have broken up and have passed through the gate and are gone out by it and their king shall pass before them and the Lord on the head of them Moreover God shall open unto them fountains flowing out of the tree of life wherewith he shall refresh them in their journey lest at any time thirst should annoy them For the Lord saith I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the vallies I will make the wilderness a pool of water and dry land springs of water Again They shall not hunger nor thirst neither shall the heat nor sun smite them for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them even by the springs of water shall he guide them To comfort them against these ten signes foregoing the coming of the Messias the most of which pretend great calamity and affliction to the Jews they have a tenfold consolation The first is that the Messias is certainly yet for to come according to that of the Prophet Behold thy king cometh c. The second that he shall again gather them together being dispersed over the face of the whole earth as it is written I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the coasts of the earth and with them the blinde and the lame the women with childe and her that travelleth with childe together a great company shall return thither From which place we may learn thus much that if any went unto his grave blind or lame the same shall God raise up cloathed with the same imperfections that one may more easily know another yet the Lord shall so perfectly cure the lame that they shall skip like Roes as the Scripture witnesseth Then shall the lame man leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumbe sing for in the wilderness shall the waters break out and streams in the desert The third is that God shall raise up the dead as it is written Many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall arise these to life eternal they to shame and everlasting contempt The fourth is that God shall build them up a third temple according to that plat-form and fashion which Ezekiel hath described cap. 41. ver 1. 2 3. The fift is that the people of Israel shall be the sole Monarchs of the whole world their dominion stretching from one end of the earth unto the other according to that of Esay 60. 12. The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish yea these nations shall be utterly wasted Yea the whole world being turned unto the Lord shall be subject to his law as it is recorded For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent The sixth is that God at that time shall defeat and destroy all the enemies of his people that is the Christians and mightily to revenge himselfe upon them as it is written I will lay vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger The seventh is that God shall take away all diseases and maladies from among the people of Israel according to that The inhabitants shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquitie The eight is God shall prolong the dayes and yeares of the life of the Israelites So that they shall live as