Miscellanies Christian and Judaical, Chapter 16 – Chapter 21
CAP. XVI. Of sacrifice.
SAcrifice is within a little as old as sinne, and sinne not much younger then the world. Adam on the day of his creation (as is most probable) sinneth and sacrificeth: and on the next day after meditates on that wherunto his sacrifice aimeth, euen Christ. Cain and Abel imitate the matter of their fathers piety, sacrifice; but Cain comes farre short in the manner. Abel hath fire from heauen to answer him, and Cain is as hot as fire because he hath not. Noah takes an odd cleane beast of eueryevery kind into his Arke for this purpose, to sacrifice him, after his Deliuery. And so hee does: but for the Chaldee Paraphrasts fancie, that he sacrificed on the very same Altar, whereon Adam and Cain and Abel had sacrificed so long before. I referre it to the beliefe of a Iew, who by the Poet seemes to be of a large faith, Credat Iudaeus apella. Decencie and order was obserued of the Fathers before the Law, for this holy peece of worship. God makes Moses in his Leuiticus to bring it into writing. While the Iewes Temple stood, or while they might stand in the Temple, they had their dayly sacrifice, till the great Sacrificer offering himselfe, caused sacrifice and oblation to cease. Now are the Iewes content, and as it appeares in their Common Prayer booke, they beseech God to be so too, with prayers without sacrifice, because they hauehave not now accesse to their sacrificing place. Their distresse (as they thinke it) for this very thing, might teach them that Messias Nagidh or Christ the Prince hath done what Daniel to them, and an Angell to Daniel had prophecyed of him.
Whether the Heathens borrowed their custome of sacrificing from the Iewes or from nature, it is not materiall. Sure I am, that the Iewes borrowed some of their abhominable sacrifices from the Heathen: Sacrificing of men is Heathenish, in Moses his language: yet was this too frequent among the Iewes, vsed also in old time by the Athenians and Carthaginians, as witnesse Plutarch, Lactantius and others: and in these times by the Indians, as in Cortes, &c. Of this bad vse (that the Heathen had got) I cannot tell what should be the reason, vnlesse they thought that cruelty was the best offering, or that their gods were more cruell then mercifull. Or this reason may bee giuen. They had learned either from the Iewes, or from their Oracles, or from the Deuill himselfe (who cares not to giuegive men some light, thereby to leade them to the more darkenesse) that a man should once bee offered, who should appease the wrath of God (as Christ was) and therefore they in remembrance of this man, did sacrifice men, either to see whether they could light on this man, or els in remembrance of him till he should come.
Some condemne Iephthae of this cruelty of sacrificing his owne daughter; who yet in Heb. 11. is commended for his faith: Austen doubts whether it is to bee counted Gods Commandement, that hee slew his owne child. But I thinke no such doubt is necessary, since there is no such strictnesse of the words in the text. A Heathen man in Plutarch when he was told that he must either sacrifice his owne child to such a Goddesse, or else his affaires and enterprises would not prosper, could answer, that he would offer with all his heart such sacrifice as the Goddesse would accept, but that she would desire or would be pleased with the bloud and murder of his child, he could not be perswaded. I am sure Iephta had reason to bee farre better instructed in such things as these, then any Heathen in the world.
Varro holds that it was not fit that any sacrifice at all should be offered. His reason in Arnobius is: Quiae Dij veri neque desiderantea, neque deposcunt; ex aere autem facti, testâ, gypso, vel marmore multò minus haec curant. For saith he, the true Gods desire not, nor exact any such matter, and those false gods that are made of brasse, mortar, marble &c. care lesse for them. The Heathen man in his owne sense saith truly, for his meaning doubtlesse is, that the Gods that are true Gods are not delighted with this cruelty of slaying beasts, nor do they for their owne sustentation or prouision desire men to be at this charge. And so the true God which is truth it selfe, though he commanded sacrifice, yet was it not meerely in respect of himselfe that he did it, any further then this, that men should by this manner of worship, acknowledge their submission and humility and obedience to him. For what cares he for beast or bullocke, since the world is his and all that is in it, Psal. 50.12. And Lyranus does set downe the speciall ends wherefore God doth command Israel so many sacrifices.
As first to weane them from Idolatry: for their seruice of the true God required so much, that they could hauehave hardly any time to thinke of Idols. And the very beasts they sacrificed, might teach them the vanitie of the Idols of Aegypt which they once serued: Slaying of a bullocke, a ramme, a goat, might tell them that the Aegyptians Apis and Hammon which they worshipped in these formes, were but vanity.
Secondly: by their sacrifices, they acknowledged that they had nothing but what they had receiued from God, and therefore of their beasts, corne, wine, &c. they offered him in thankfulnesse some of his owne.
Thirdly: these sacrifices were to beare Christ in their minds till hee should come and make a full attonement for them. And so saies Lyra, the very beasts sacrificed, represent Christ, an oxe for patience, a sheepe for innocence, and an ill smelling goat, for his likenesse to sinfull flesh.
A fourth reason might be giuen: that the people standing and seeing these beasts slaine and fired, might remember their owne deseruings, and call to mind their sinnes for which this beast was thus vsed. Their putting of their hands (the right hand saith the Chaldee) vponupon the head of the beast, seemes to import some such a matter as their acknowledgement, of their deseruing of that which the beast was ready to suffer, death and fire. Whosoeuer desires to be taken vp with Allegories about this piece of Gods seruice, Flauiacensis will furnish him: and if he will not do, the Fathers are copious enough, and it may be too much this way.
The Heathen Mariners in shippe with Ionah, are said to sacrifice and vow vowes: which the Chaldee helpes out (as thinking the ship and a tempest vnfit time and place for sacrifice) thus, they promised they would sacrifice: viz. when they should come ashore, and vowed vowes to become Proselytes, saith Iarchi, or to giuegive Almes to the poore, saith Kimchi. Endlesse it were to trace the Heathens, and to see how neere or how farre they be to or from the sacrifices of the Iewes.
CAP. XVII. A Iust Iudgement.
CRantzius the Denmarke Historian as he hath many delightsome passages of storie, so this especially I could not but coppy out at my reading of it, wherein I see God iust, and murder heauy. One was hired for a summe of money to murder an innocent Dane. He does the bloudy fact, and presently receiues in a purse his wages of iniquity. A heauy purse of gold for a while, makes a light heart, but where the guiltinesse grones heauy too, the gold is worth nothing. At last the murderers conscience accuseth and condemnes him like both witnesse and Iudge for his bloudy fact. His heart and eyes are both cast downe, the one as farre as hell, whither the fact had sunke, and the other to the earth, whither the bloud. He is now wearie of his owne life, as ere-while he was of anothers. He ties his purse of gold (which had hired him to kill the other) about his necke, and offers it to eueryevery one he meets as his reward if he would kill him. At last hee is paid in his owne coine, and hires his owne murderer with that price wherewith he himselfe was hired. And so perish all such whose feet are swift to shed bloud, and he that strikes with an vnlawfull sword, be strucken with a lawfull againe. This mans case makes mee to thinke of Cain the old grandsire of all murderers. Of his heauy doome and misery, and burden and banishment. Dauid once groaned vnderunder the burden of blood-guiltinesse, but God at his repenting eased him: Psal. 51. Iudas takes a worse course then euen Cain did to bee released of the sting of bloudshed: Mat. 27. God grant I neuer know what it is to bee guilty of shedding of bloud, but onelyonly by reading.
CAP. XVIII. Of the name of the Red Sea.
IN Hebrew it is called Suph: the sea of weeds: Because (saith Kimchi) there grew abundance of weeds vponupon the sides of it. In Greeke Latine and English, and other Westerne tongues, it is commonly called the Red Sea: Diuerse reasons are giuen by diuerse persons why it is so called, the best seemes to me to be, from the rednesse of the ground about it. And so Herodotus speakes of a place thereabout called Erythrobolus or the red soile. It is thought our country tooke the name of Albion, from the like occasion, but not like colour. As from the white rocks or clifts vponupon the sea side. The Iewes hold that Whale that swallowed Ionah, brought him into the Red Sea: and there shewed him the way that Israel passed through it, for his eyes were as two windowes to Ionah, that he looked out and saw all the sea as he went. A whetstone, yet they will needs hauehave some reason for this loudly, and this is it, because Ionah in Cap. 2.5. saith Suph hhabhush leroshi, which is, the weeds were wrapped about my head: which they construe, the Red Sea was wrapped about my head. And to helpe the Whale thither, Rabbi Iaphet saith, that the Red Sea meets with the sea of Iapho, or the Mediterranean: vnlesse the Rabbin meanes that they meet vnderunder ground, guesse what a Geographer he was: and if hee find a way vnderunder ground, guesse what a deepe scholler. A long iourney it was for the Whale to go vp to Hercules pillars into the Ocean, and from thence to the Red Sea in three dayes and nights: but the fabling Iewes must find some sleight to maintaine their owne inuentions:
CAP. XIX. Of the word Raca. Mat. 5.22.
WHosoeuer shall say vntounto his brother Raca, shall be worthy to bee punished by the Councell. The word is a Iewish nick-name, and so vsed in the Talmud for a despitefull title to a despised man, as Our Rabbins shew a thing done with a religious man that was praying in the high way, by comes a great man, and giues him the time of the day: but he saluted him not againe: He stayed for him till he had finished his prayer; after he had done his prayer, he said to him Reka, is it not written in your law, that you shall take heed to your selues? Had I strucke off thy head with my sword, who should hauehave required thy bloud &c. And so goes the angry man on. Irenaeus hath a Phrase nigh to the signification of this word, qui expuit cerebrum, a man that hath no braines, and so Raka signifies a man emptie, whether of vnderstanding or goodnesse: so the Greeke word foreign is frequently taken.
CAP. XX. Wit stollen by Iewes out of the Gospell.
Gospell.
OVR Sauiour saith to His Disciples, the haruest truly is great, but the labourers are few, Matth. 9.38.
Whosoeuer heareth these sayings, and doth them, I will liken him to a man, that built his house vponupon a rock: And the raine descended, and flouds came, &c.
And eueryevery one that heareth these sayings, and doth them not, shalbe likened to a foolish man that built his house vponupon the sand. Mat. 7.24, 25. &c.
Of eueryevery idle word that men speake, they shall giuegive account therof at the day of Iudgement. Mat. 12.36.
With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you againe. Mat. 7.2.
Iewes.
RAbbi Simeon saith: today is the haruest, and the worke is much and the labourers idle, and the reward great, and the Master of the house vrgent, Pirk Abhoth Per. 2.
He that learneth the law, and doth many good works, is like a man that built his house, the foundatiō of stone and the rest of bricke, and the waters beate, and the stone stood, &c.
But hee that learneth the law, and doth not many good workes, is like a man that built his house, the foundation of brick and the rest of stone, &c. and the brick wasted, &c. Abhoth Rabbi Nathan.
The very same words almost in Orehhoth hhajmi.
Rabbi Mair saith: with the measure that a man measureth, they measure to him againe. Sanhedrin.
The whole Lords Prayer might almost be picked out of their workes, for they deny not the words though they contradict the force of it. The first words of it they vse frequently, as Our father which art in heauen: in their common prayer booke, fol. 5. and Humble your hearts before your father which is in heauen in Rosh hashaua. But they hauehave as much deuotion toward the Father while they denie the Sonne, as the Heathens had which could say foreign *Frequent in Homer.Our father Iupiter, and worshipped an vnknowne god, Act. 17. They pray almost in eueryevery other prayer, Thy kingdome come, and that Bimherah bejamenu quickly, euen in our dayes, but it is for an earthly kingdome they thus looke and pray. They pray, lead me not into temptation, fol. 4. liturg. while they tempt him that lead them in the wildernesse, as did their father, Psal. 95. By this Gospell which they thus filch, they must be judged.
CAP. XXI. Saint Cyprians nicety about the last Petition in the Lords Prayer.
SAint Cyprian it seemeth is so fearefull of making God the Author of euill, that he will not thinke that God leadeth any man into temptation. The Petition he readeth thus: Ne nos patiaris induci in tentationem, suffer vsus not to be lead into temptation, but deliuer vsus from euill, leauing the ordinanary current and truth of the Prayer, because hee will not bee accessary to imagine that God should lead man into temptation: whereas all men as well as he do thinke, that God doth not leade man into euill temptations as Sathan doth, and yet that God doth tempt men. So hee is said in plaine words to hauehave tempted Abraham: And Rabbi Tanchum wittily obserues that Abrahams two great temptations begin both with one straine, foreign Get thee gone. The first, Get thee gone out of thy country from thy kind…ed and fathers house, Gen. 12. the second Get thee gone to the land of Moriah, and offer thy sonne Isaac vponupon one of the mountaines, Gen. 22.
May we not safely say here that God lead Abraham into temptation? But as it followes, liberautt à malo, God deliuered him from the euill of the temptation, which is being ouercome. And Saint Iames saith sweetly, (though at first he may seeme to croste this Petition) foreign: Brethren account it all ioy when ye fall into diuerse temptations, Iac. 1.2. to be in temptation is ioy, for God chastiseth eueryevery sonne that he receiueth, and yet pray lead vsus not into temptation, but deliuer vsus from euill: let the latter comment vponupon the first, lead vsus not into the euill of temptation, which in the Apostles Phrase is, suffer vsus not to bee tempted aboue our strength.