Pilgrimage, Book 2 · Chapter 20
CHAP. XX.
The Iewes faith and hope touching their Messias.
THe Iewes generally beleeue, hope, and pray for a Messias; but such a one, whose kingdome shall be of this world, and who shall (to vse the Apostles a….1.6.phrase, who were also, euen after CHRISTS death and resurrection, partakers of this dreame) restore the Kingdome to Israel. And because the Scripture speaketh somewhat of the poore, contemptible, and deiected state, of the promised Messias, sometimes of the puissance, renowne, and glory of his kingdome: they therefore frame to their conceits, two Messiahs, one poore and simple, but a mighty warriour, whom they call Messias Ben-Ioseph: the other, Messias Ben-Dauid; after the other in time, but before him in glory, & the true Messias: howsoeuer euen this also be in their opinions but a meere man, and one which shall marry and leaue behind him a remaining and raigning posteritie.
The ancient Iewes looked for this Messias to be sent them about this time, when IESVS came in the flesh: as that Prophecie which is fathered on Elias testifieth, to wit, that the world should be 2000. yeares Tohu, emptie and without Law, 2000. vnderunder the Law, 2000. vnderunder the Messias: and accordingly CHRIST IESVS came into the world about the yeare after the Creation, 3963. The Iewes reckon 202. years fewer in all their computations, then the Christians. VponUpon this occasion, and in regard of the generall expectation of the Messias, about that time rose so many Sects & especially that rebellion of Ben-Cochab, before spoken of, to whom R. Akibha (famous for his 24000. disciples) gaue testimony, and called him Messias the King. But this Bencochab, the sonne of the Starre, Numb. 23. was by Adrian (as you hauehave seene) besieged, taken, and executed, and was called after b…Ben-Cozabh, the sonne of lying. They therefore, when as they found no Messias, said, that the time was deferred, because of their sins: and after renounced Anathema to him, that should set downe the time of his comming. And being conuinced in their consciences, that the c….Prophecies of this time were already past and accomplished, they affirmed in their writings, that he was then borne, but did not yet reueale himselfe, because of their sinnes. R. Salomon Iarchi writeth, that the ancient Iewes thought he was borne on that day in which Ierusalem was last destroyed; but vncertaine where he hath lien hidde. Some say that he abideth in Paradise tied by the haire of a womans head: so interpreting that of the Canticles. The d…haire of thy head is as purple, The King is tied in the rafters; by rafters meaning Paradise. The Talmudists e…write, that he lay at the gates of Rome among the Lazars and Leapers, according to Esay 53.
Before he commeth, they write, that ten notable miracles shall happen to warne them thereof. First, GOD shall raise vp three Kings, which shall make profession of the true Faith, but shall indeed betray it, and seduce men, and cause them to deny GOD. The louers of the Truth shall flee and hide themselues in caues, and holes of the earth, and these Tyrants shall pursue and slay them. Then shall there be no King in Israel (as it is fHosh.3.4.written) no Pastors, no holy men. The heauens shall be shut vp, the people shall be made few: for these Tyrants, (which yet by diuine dispensation shall raigne but three moneths) shall impose ten times as much, as was before exacted, and they which hauehave not to pay shall lose their heads. And from the ends of the earth, shall come men, blacke and loathsome; the dread of whose countenance shall kill men: for they shall hauehave two heads and seuen eyes, sparkling like fire.
The second Miracle shall be a great heate of the Sunne, causing Feuers, Pestilences, and other diseases, so that the Gentiles shall digge themselues graues, and there lie and wish for death. But the Israelites shall hauehave this heate to be as a wholesome medicine to them: so interpreting the gMalac.4.2.Prophet.
GOD shall make a bloudie dew fall on the earth, of which the people, and the wicked of the Israelites shall drinke, thinking it to be good water, and shall die: it shall not hurt hDan.12.3.the inst, who shall shine, &c.
Fourthly, GOD shall make a wholesome dew to fall, whereof the indifferent meaner sinners, sicke of the former dew, shall drinke and liue, Hos.14.6.
Fifthly, The iIoel2.31.Sunne shall be darkened thirtie daies, and then receiue againe his light, whereby many shall embrace Iudaisme.
Sixthly, GOD, shall permit the Edomites (or Romans) to rule ouer all the world: but one especially at Rome shal raigne nine moneths ouer all the world, wasting large countries, laying heauy tributes vponupon the Israelites. Then shall the Israelites hauehave no helper (as saith Esai. 49.16.) But after nine moneths GOD shall send Messias Ben-Ioseph. of the children of Ioseph, whose name shall be Nehemias, the sonne of Husiel. He shall come with the race of Ephraim, Manasse, Beniamin and Gad, and the Israelites hearing of it, shall flocke to him, as Ieremie sheweth, kIerem.5.14.Conuert ye to the LORD yerobellious children, I will take yee, one of a Citie, and two of a Tribe, &c. This Messias shall ouerthrow the Edomites, and slay their King, and destroying the Empire, shall carrie to Ierusalem holy vessells, reserued in the house of Aelian for a treasure. The King of Egypt also shall make peace with the Israelites, and shall kill the men about Ierusalem, Damascus, and Ascalon; the fame whereof shall affright all the inhabitants of the earth.
Seuenthly, There is at Rome a marble image of a virgin, not made by mans hand, to which shall resort all the wicked of the world, and shall incestuously conuerse therewith. Hence shall GOD frame an Infant in the same, which shall with breach of the marble come forth. This shall be named Armillus the wicked, the same which the Christians call Antichrist, of ten elles quantitie of breadth and length; a span-breadth betweene his eyes, which shall be red and deepe in his head; his haire yellow, the soles of his feet greene, deformed with two heads. Hee shall professe himselfe the Romane Messias and GOD, and shall be accepted of them. He shall bid them bring him the law which he hath giuen them, which they shall bring with their prayer-booke: he shall cause them to beleeue in him; and shall send embassadors to Nehemias the sonne of Husiel, and to the people of Israel, commanding them also to bring him their Law, and to acknowledge him for GOD. Then shall Nehemias goe vntounto Armillus with three hundred thousand Ephramites, carrying with him the Booke of the Law; and when he comes at him, he shall reade out of the same this sentence, I am the LORD thy GOD, thou shalt hauehave none other gods in my sight. Armillus shall reply, that there is no such sentence in their Law, and therefore they should acknowledge him for GOD, as well as the Gentiles. Then shall Nehemias ouerthrow two hundred thousand of Armillus his armie; whereat Armillus shall be so wrathfull, that he shall assemble all his forces into a deepe valley, and there shall destroy (with many other Israelites) this Nehemias. But the Angels shall take and hide him, that Armillus may not know of his death, lest he should not leaue one of Israel liuing. All Nations shall then expell the Israelites, and such affliction shall befall them, as neuer since the beginning of the world. At this time shall the Angell Michael come forth, and separate the wicked from Israel, as writeth lCap.12.vers.1.Daniel. They which remaine shall flee into the desert, and for fiue and fortie daiesspace, liue with grasse, and leaues, and herbes; but all the wicked Israelites shall die. Armillus shall after subdue Egypt, and shall turne thence against Ierusalem, and seeke againe to waste it. These things after their manner they fable out of the eleuenth and twelfth of Daniel.
The eighth Miracle is the arising of Michael, who three times shall winde his great horne Es.27.13. and Zach. 9. 14. At the first sound, the true Messias Ben-Dauid, and Elias the Prophet, shall shew themselues to those deuout Israelites in the deserts of Iuda, who shall then gather courage: and all the Iewes in the world shall heare this sound, and shall confesse GODS deliuerance, and all that hauehave beene led captiue into Assyria, shall assemble together. The same horne shall strike feare and diseases into the Christians, and other people. Now shall the Iewes make great iorneyes towards Ierusalem, and together with Elias and Messias shall come thither with ioy. Armillus hearing this, in his proud furie shall re-assemble his Christians against the Messias and Ierusalem. But GOD not suffering his people to fall out of one trouble into another, shall say to the Messias, Come place thy selfe at my right hand; and to the israelites, Be still, and waite for the great succour of the LORD this day. And then shall GOD raine fire and brimstone from heauen, as Ezekiel mEzec.38.22.reporteth, wherewith Armillus and his armie shall die, and nObad.18.the house of Iacob shall bee as fire, and the house of Ioseph as a flame, and the house of Esau (the Idumaean Atheists which destroyed GODS house) as stubble.
At the second sound, or blast of this horne of Michael, the graues at Ierusalem shall open, and the dead arise, and Messias Ben-Dauid with Elias, shall reuoke into life that Messias Ben-Ioseph: and the Israelites shall send Messias Ben-Dauid into all countries of the Iewes dispersion, to cause them to come to Ierusalem; and the Nations with whom they are, shall bring them in their chariots, and on their shoulders.
The last Miracle, is the third time of Michaels winding his horne, when GOD shall bring forth all the Iewes, which are by the riuers Gosan, Lachbach, Chabor, and in the Cities of Iuda, and they without number or measure, shall with their infants enter into the Paradise of Moses; and the ground before them and behind them shall be meere fire, which shall leaue no sustenance to the Christians. And when the ten Tribes shall depart out of the Nations, then the pillar of the cloud of Diuine glorie shall compasse them, and GOD shall goe before them, and shall open to them the fountaines flowing from the tree of life, Esah49.10.
Against these ten miraculous signes, fore-shewing Messias his comming, the most being full of troubles, they hauehave ten consolations. First, The certaintie of Messias comming. Secondly, That he shall gather them from all places of the dispersion, Ierem. 31.8. but the lame there mentioned shall be so cured, that oEsay 35.….they shall leape as Harts, &c. Thirdly, GOD will raise vp the dead. Fourthly, GOD will erect a third Temple, according to the figure of that in Ezekiel 41. Fifthly, That the Israelites shall then raigne ouer all the earth, Esay 60. 12. yea all the world shall be subiect to the Law, Soph.3.9. Sixthly, God will destroy all their enemies, Ezech.25.14. Seuenthly, God will take from them all diseases, Esay 33.24. Eightly, God will prolong their liues, that they shall liue as long as an Oke, Esay 65.22. and as in the times from Adam to Noe. Ninthly, They shall see God face to face, Esai. 40.5. and they shall all prophecie, Ioel 2.28. Tenthly, God shall take away from them all euill concupiscence, and inclination to euill, Ezech.36.26. Thus farre out of the booke Abhkas Rochel.
Their cheere in these daies shall be the greatest beasts, birds, and fishes, which God euer created; and no other wine then what grew in Paradise, and was kept in Adams celler till that time: the great Oxe Behemoth mentioned in pIob 40.10.Iob, and Psal, 50.10. All the beasts of the wood are mine, and the beasts feeding on a thousand hills, that is, Behemoth which eueryevery day feedeth on a thousand hilles. But left this deuouring beast should consume all the hilles in the world, they tell you that he is a stalled Oxe, still abiding in the same place, and what he eateth in the day, groweth againe in the night. The huge Whale Leuiathan, or as they pronounce it, Lipiasan, must honor also this Feast: of this they write in the qBaua Basra; cap.5.Talmud; that to preuent filling the world with these huge monsters, God gelded the male Leuiathan, and the female is slaine, and preserued in pickle, for the iust, to be eaten in the times of the Messias, Esay 27. The male Behemoth was gelded also, and the female was stored vp for this feast. Elias Leuita reporteth of a huge huge bird, also called Barinchne, to be rosted at this feast; of which the rBechoros cap. vlt.Talmud saith, that an egge, sometime falling out of her nest, did ouerthrow and breake downe three hundred tall cedars; with which fall the egge, being broken, ouerflowed and carried away sixtie Villages. We will hauehave the whetstone before we part. R. Barchonnah saw a Frogge as bigge as Akra, a Village of sixtie housholds: then came a huger Serpent and swallowed that huge Frogge. Lastly, the hugest hugest Crow that euer the Rabbin saw, slew and deuoured these both; and flying away, sate on a tree, which tree sure could not be lesse then the three hundred cedars before mentioned, if this crow were but as bigge as that egge. R. Papa answereth, that he would neuer hauehave beleeued it, but that he saw it (I hope they will pardon vsus if wee be of the same mind).
Rabbi Kimchi on the fiftieth Psalme auerreth out of Rabbi Iehudah, that Ziz is a bird so great, that with spreading abroad his wings, hee hideth the Sunne, and darkeneth all the world. And (to leape backe into the Talmud) a certaine Rabbi sailing on the sea, saw a bird in rLike the fish in the Legend of Saint Brandon, who if he could bring his taile to his mouth, would ouerturne the world Leg. aur.the middle of the sea, so high, that the water reached but to her knees; whereupon he wished his companions there to wash, because it was so shallow: Doe it not (saith a voice from heauen) for it is seuen yeares space since a hatchet by chance falling out of a mans hand in this place, and alwaies descending, is not yet come at the bottome. I perceiue by your incredulous smiles, you will scarce beleeue sCholm. cap.3.that a Lion in the wood Ela, roared so dernely, that all the women in Rome, (foure hundred miles from thence) for verie horrour proued abortiue: and when hee came an hundred miles neerer, his terrible noise shooke the teeth out of all the Romans heads; and the Emperour himselfe, that caused the Rabbi to obtaine of GOD by his prayers to make this triall of the Lion, fell downe from his throne halfe dead; and with much importunitie requested his helpe, to cause him retire to his denne. But this roaring hath almost marred our feast.
Our wine you hauehave heard of, fetched out of Adams celler, Esay 27. 2. 3. and Psal. 75.9. Before the feast, Messias will cause these prettie creatures, Behemoth and Leuiathan tIob 40.15. Psal.104.26.to play together, and make them sport: but when they hauehave wearied themselues in the fight, Messias with his sword shall kill them both, Esay 27.1. Then followeth the feast, and afterwards his marriage: uPsal.45.10.Kings daughters shall be among thine honorable women: at thy right hand standeth the Queene in the gold of Ophir: amongst the Messias his excellent women (Rabbi Kimchi expoundeth) shall be Kings daughters, for euerie King shall repute it his owne glorie to bestow a daughter on the Messias: but the true Queene shall be one of the fairest Israelites daughters, and shall continually conuerse with him, whereas the others must come onelyonly at call. Hee shall thus beget children, which shall raigne after him Esay 53. 10. when hee is dead.
Now the state of the Iewes in his time shall bee such, that the Christians shall freely build them houses, and Cities, and till their grounds, and bestow on them their goods: yea Princes shall serue them: and they shall walke in faire garments, Esai. 60. 10. 11. 12. and Esai. 61. 5. 6. The aire also shall bee new and holesome, Esay 65. 17. by the benefit whereof they shall abide sound, and liue long, and in their age bee as fresh as if they were yong, Psalme 92. 14. 15. The wheate once sowen shall alway grow vp of it selfe, no otherwise then the Vines, Hosea 14.8. And if any shall desire any raine for his field, or garden, or one herbe by it selfe, hee shall hauehave it, Zachar. 10. 11. Then shall bee peace among men and beasts, Hosea 2. 19. Esay 11. 7. if there arise any warre among the Gentiles, the Messias shall accord them, Esay 2.4. They shall liue in great felicitie, full of the knowledge and praise of GOD. The earth shall be full hereof, &c.
Thus hauehave wee heard the infancie of the Church in the time of her nonage, and of those Hebrew Patriarches: wee hauehave seene also their present Infancie in these Iewish fables, the iust reward of xIohn3.13.Louing darkenesse, rather then light. And so with our prayers to GOD, at last to take that Veile of Moses from their hearts, that there may bee One proper Shepheard, and one sheepefold, and that meane while wee may learne preciously to esteeme, and reuerently to make vse of that light we hauehave; warned by the spectacle of Diuine Iustice in them, through so many eyes blinded in so palpable fooleries; wee will now leaue them and this Holy Land, and seeke further what aduentures wee shall light on in the next neighbouring Nations; hoping and crauing for pardon of such prolixitie in this part of our discourse, fittest, of all the other in this part of our worke, to be considered.