Part 15

These were the extraordinary means by which _God_ revealed himself to his people of old: ordinarily, he revealed himself by his written word. Notwithstanding the _Hebrews_ say, that the Law, even from the first time of its delivery unto _Moses_, was twofold: the one committed to writing, which they call ‎‏תורה שבכתב‏‎ _Thora Schebictab_, the written Law: the other delivered by tradition, ‎‏תורה בעל פה‏‎ _Thora begnal pe_, it was also termed their _Kabbala_, from ‎‏קבל‏‎ _Kibbel_, signifying _Accipere_, to receive or learn. They say both were delivered by _God_ unto _Moses_ in Mount _Sinai_, but this latter was delivered from _Moses to ~Joshua~, from ~Joshua~ to the Elders, from the Elders to the Prophets, from the Prophets to those of the great Synagogue, and so successively to after-ages, till at last it was digested into one Book, containing principally precepts and directions for those Israelites which inhabited the holy Land. It is called ~Talmud Hierosolymitanum~. It was composed in the year of our Lord 230._ This because it containeth but a few constitutions, is but of little use. About 500 _years after Christ_, then was there a more full and exact collection of their constitutions, for direction of those _Jews_ which dwelt in _Babylon_, and other forreign places; this is termed _Talmud Babylonicum_, and is of greatest use among Authors; it containeth the body of _their Civil and Canon Law_. This traditional law they hold to be as authentick as their written word, and that _Moses_ received it from God, when he received the Law; for, say they, were it not for this exposition, the _Decalogue_ it self might have been delivered _In hora veloci_, _in less than an hour_.[495]

[495] _‎‏אלח כ שעח‏‎ Moses Kotsen. in præf._

Here we must note that the word _Kabbala_, when it is applied to the _Kabbalists_, to difference them from the _Talmudists_, is taken in a stricter sense, and signifieth those subtleties or mysteries which are observed from the different writing of some letters in the Scripture, from the _transposing of them_, from a _mystical kind of Arithmetick_, &c. This was never wholly committed to writing, of some instances we have, _Gen. 23. 2._ _Abraham came_ ‎‏לבכתה‏‎ _to weep for Sara_. Here because the letter _Caph_ is less than the rest, they note[496] that _Abraham wept but little for Sara_, because she was old. Again, the letter _Aleph_ is found six times in the first verse of _Genesis_: Hence R. _Elias_ collected that the world should endure but _six thousand years_: because _Aleph_ in the _Hebrews computation_ standeth for a thousand. From the transposition _of letters_ they conclude after this manner; ‎‏חרם‏‎ _Cherem_ signifieth _Anathema_ or _Excommunication_, by a _Metathesis_ or _transposition of letters_, it is made ‎‏רחם‏‎ _Rachem_ signifying _mercy_; by another _transposition_ it is made ‎‏רמח‏‎ _Ramach_, which letters in the _Jews computation_ make 248, which in their Anatomy, they find to be the just number of members in a mans body: their conclusion hence is, that if _an excommunicated person do truly repent then his ~Cherem~ is turned into ~Rachem~, his curse turned into a blessing: if he do not repent, then his ~Cherem~ entreth into ~Ramach~, the curse entreth into all his members_, to the utter destroying of the whole man. Again, ‎‏איש‏‎ _Isch_, signifieth _a man_. ‎‏אשה‏‎ _Escha_, _a woman_. Hence they note, that in the _name of the man_ here is ‎‏י‏‎ _Jod_ which is not in the _name of the woman_; in the _name of the woman_ there is ‎‏ה‏‎ _He_, which is not in the _name of the man_: both these make ‎‏יה‏‎ _Jah_, one of the names of God: these being taken away, in both names there remains ‎‏אש‏‎ _Esch_ signifying _fire_, to shew, that as long as man and wife agree, _God is with them_: but when they disagree, _fire is between them_: Thus we see what vain mysteries their _Kabbalists_ observe.

[496] _Baal Turin._

CHAP. IX.

_Their Teraphim._

Concerning the _Teraphim_, two things are especially to be enquired. _First_, what they were? _Secondly_, for what use? the word ‎‏תרף‏‎ _Taraph_, signifieth in general the _compleat Image of a man_. _Michal_ took an _image_, (_a Teraphim_) and laid it in the bed, _1 Sam. 19. 13._ More particularly it signifieth an _Idol_ or _image made for mens private use in their own houses_, so that these images seem to have been their _Penates_ or _Lares_, their houshould _gods_; wherefore hast thou stoln my _gods? my Teraphim_, _Gen. 31. 30._ And this man _Michal_ had _an house of gods_, and made an _Ephod_ and _Teraphim_, _Jud. 17. 5._ Because of the worship exhibited to these _Idols_: Hence from the _Hebrew_ _Taraph_, as some read it, _Tharaph_, cometh the _Greek_ θεραπεύειν, _To worship_.[497] The manner how these _Images_ were made, is fondly conceived thus among the _Rabbines_;[498] _They killed a man that was a first-born son, and wrung off his head, and seasoned it with salt, and spices, and wrote upon a plate of gold the name of an unclean spirit, and put it under the head upon a wall, and lighted Candles before it, and worshipped it_. With such _Laban_ spake, say they. But, without controversie, the _Teraphim_ which _Michal_ put in the bed, was a _compleat statur, or Image of a man_. The use of these _Images_ was, to consult with them as with _Oracles_, concerning things for the present unknown, or future to come. To this purpose they were made by _Astrologers_[499] under certain constellations, capable of heavenly influences, whereby they were enabled to speak. The _Teraphims have spoken vanity_, _Zach. 10. 2._ And among other reasons why _Rachel_ stole away her Fathers Images, this is thought to be one, that _Laban_ might not by consulting with these Images discover what way _Jacob_ took in his flight.

[497] _οὐδ’ ἀθανάτους θεραπεύειν ἤθελον. Hesiod. Ἔργ. καὶ ἡμέρ._

[498] _R. Eliezer. vid. Eliam Thisbit._

[499] _Aben. Ezra. Gen. 31._

CHAP. X.

_The several sorts of Divination forbidden._

We shall find, _Deut. 18. 10, 11._ those _Diviners_, which are by the Law forbidden, distinguished into _seven kinds_; not because there were no other, but they were the most usual. 1. _An observer of times._ 2. _An Inchanter._ 3. _A Witch._ 4. _A Charmer._ 5. _A consulter with familiar spirits._ 6. _A Wizard._ 7. A _Nigromancer._ To these we may add an eighth, out of _Hos. 4. 12._ _Consulting with the staff._ and a ninth out of _Ezek. 21. 21._ A _consulter with entrails_. 1. The first is ‎‏מעונן‏‎, an _observer of times_,[500] one that distinguisheth times and seasons, saying _Such a day is good, or such a day is naught; such an hour, such a week, such a month is luckie, and such and such unluckie for such and such businesses_: whence those[501] that derive the word from ‎‏עין‏‎ _Gnajin_, signifying an _eye_ (as if hereby we meant a _Jugler, or Imposter, who deceived the eyes of his spectators by casting a mist before them_) utterly mistake: more pertinently they speak, who derive it from ‎‏עונה‏‎ _Gnona_, signifying _Time_. But of all I approve those who derive it[502] from ‎‏ענן‏‎ _Gnanan_, A _Cloud_, as if the Original signified properly a _Planetary_, or _Star-gazer_. Hereby he is distinguished from the second sort of unlawful _Diviners_, for he also was an Observer of times; _the first_ drawing his conclusions from the _colour or motion of the Clouds: the second from his own superstitious observation of good and evil events, happening on such and such dayes, such and such times_: the _first_ seemeth to have drawn his conclusions, _a priori_, from the _Clouds_ or _Planets, causing good and bad events_: the second, _a posteriori, from the events themselves, happening upon such and such times_. This _Planetary_, when he observed the _clouds_, seemeth to have stood _with his face Eastward, his back Westward, his right hand towards the South, and his left hand towards the North_: except it was from this positure of the _Star-gazers body_ in time of observing, I find no reason why the _Hebrews_ should term the _Eastern_ part of the world ‎‏קדים‏‎, _Kadim_ i. The _former part of the world_: the _Western part_ ‎‏אחור‏‎, i. e. The _back part_; the _South part_ ‎‏ימין‏‎ _Jamin_, i. e. The _right hand_; the _North part_ ‎‏שמאל‏‎ _Shemol_, i. e. The _left hand_. That the reason of these denominations is, because _Adam_ was created with his face toward the _East_, is as vain, as hard to prove.

[500] _Jarchi. Lev. 19. 26._

[501] _D. Kimchi. in rad._

[502] _Aben. Esra. Levit. 19. 26._

2. The second is ‎‏מנחש‏‎, _Menachesch_, rendred an _Inchanter_; it importeth rather an _Augur_, or _Soothsayer_. The Original signifieth such an one _who out of his own experience draweth observations to foretell good or evil to come_, as _Soothsayers_ do, by observing such and such events, by such and such flying of Birds, screechings, or kawings. The _Rabbines_ speak in this wise:[503] _He is Menachesch, a Soothsayer, who will say, because a morsel of bread is fallen out of his mouth, or his staff out of his hand, or his son called him back, or a Crow kawed unto him, or a Goat passed by him, or a Serpent was on his right hand, or a Fox on his left hand, therefore he will say, Do not this or that to day._ This word is used, _Gen. 30. 27._ I have _learned by experience_, saith _Laban_, that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. Again, _Gen. 44. 5._ _Is not this the cup in which my Lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth?_ that is, _proveth, or maketh tryal or experience what manner of men ye are_: The _Heathen_ people were very superstitious in these observations: Some daies were _Atri_, others _Albi_, some _unlucky_, others _lucky_; on some daies they accounted it unfortunate to begin battel, on some months unfortunate to marry.

[503] _D. Kimchi. radic._

_Mense malum Maio nubere vulgus ait._

_Ovid. Fast._

And as they were _superstitious in observing unlucky signs_, so likewise in the means used to _avert the evil_ portended: the means were either _words_ or _deeds_.[504] _Deeds_; thus if any unlucky Bird, or such like came in their way, _they would fling stones at it_; and of this sort is _the scratching of a suspected Witch_, which among the simple sort of people is thought to be a means to cure _Witch-craft_. By _words_, they thought to elude the evil, signified by such signs, when they say, Εἰς κεφαλὴν σοὶ, _In caput tuum recidat hoc omen_; _This evil light on thy own head_.

[504] _Plura istiusmodi ἐνόδια σύμβολα vide apud Theophrastum Character. περὶ Δεισιδαιμ._

The third is ‎‏מכשף‏‎ _Mecascheph_, _a Witch_, properly a _Jugler_. The Original signifieth such a kind of _Sorcerer who bewitcheth the senses and minds of men, by changing the forms of things, making them appear otherwise than indeed they are_. The same word is applied to the Sorcerers in _Egypt_, who resisted _Moses_ _Exod. 7. 11._ Then _Pharaoh_ also called _Mecaschphim_, the Sorcerers. Now the _Magicians_ in _Egypt_; they also did in like manner with their _Inchantments_. This latter part of the Text explaineth what those Sorcerers were. In that they are called _Magicians_, it implieth their learning, that they were _wise men_, and _great Philosophers_: the word _inchantments_ declareth the _manner of the delusion_, and it hath the signification of such a _slight whereby the eyes are deluded_, for ‎‏להטים‏‎ _Lahatim_, there translated _inchantments_, importeth the _glistering flame of a fire or sword, wherewith the eyes of men are dazled_. The _Greek_ version doth not unfitly term them φαρμακοὺς, _Unguentarios_, _Syplasiarios_, _Compounders of Medicines_, or if you please _complexion-makers,[505] such Artisans who mask men and womens faces with paintings and false complexions_. Hence it is that the _Apostle_ compareth such false teachers, _who under a form and shew of godliness_, lead captive silly women, to the _Egyptian_ Sorcerers _Jannes ~and~ Jambres, who resisted ~Moses~,_ _2 Tim. 3. 8._ These two were of chief note: In the _Talmud_[506] they are all called _Johanne_ and _Mamre_; by _Numenius_,[507] a _Pythagorean_, _Jannes_ and _Mambres_; by _Pliny_,[508] _Jamnes and Jotape_.

[505] _φαρμακὸς δέ ἐστι μύρεψος. Suidas._

[506] _Talmud. tract. Menachoth. c. 9._

[507] _Origen. contra Celsum. lib. 4._

[508] _Plin. nat. hist. lib. 30, cap. 1._

The fourth is ‎‏חובר‏‎ _Chober_, _a Charmer_. The _Hebrew_ word signifies _conjoyning_ or _consociating_; either from the league and fellowship which such persons have with the devil, or as _Bodine_ thinketh[509] _because such kind of Witches have frequent meetings, in which they dance and make merry together_. _Onkelos_ translateth such a charmer ‎‏רטין‏‎ _Raten_, _a mutterer_, intimating the manner of these Witcheries to be by the muttering, or soft speaking of some spell or charm. The description of a _Charmer_ is thus delivered:[510] _He is a character who speaketh words of a strange language, and without sense, and he in his foolishness thinketh that these words are profitable: that if one say so or so unto a Serpent or Scorpion, it cannot hurt a man, and he that saith so or so unto a man, he cannot be hurt_, &c. _He that whispereth over a wound, or readeth a verse out of the Bible, likewise he that readeth over an Infant, that it may not be frighted, or that layeth the book of the Law, or the Phylacteries upon a child that it may sleep, such are not only among Inchanters, or Charmers, but of those that generally deny the law of God, because they make the word of the Scripture medicine for the body, whereas they are not, but medicine for the soul._ As it is written, _Prov. 3. 22._ _They shall be life unto thy soul_. Of this sort was that whereof _Bodinus_[511] speaketh, _That a child by saying a certain verse out of the Psalms, hindred a woman that she could not make her butter; by reciting the same verse backward, he made her butter come presently_.

[509] _Bodin. Mag. dæmon. l. 1. c. 6._

[510] _Maimon. tract. Idolol. c. 11. sect. 10. 12._

[511] _Bodin. Mag. dæmon. l. 2. c. 1._

The fifth, ‎‏שאל אוב‏‎ _Schoel Ob_, _a consulter with Ob_, or _with familiar spirits_. _Ob_ signifieth properly a _bottle_, and is applied in divers places of Scripture to _Magicians_, because they being possessed with an evil spirit, speak with a soft and hollow voice, _as out of a bottle_. The _Greek_ calleth them Ἐγγαστριμύτης _Ventriloquos_; _such whose voice seemeth to proceed out of their belly_.[512] Such a _Diviner_ was the Damosel, _Acts 16. 16._ in St. _Augustines_ judgement,[513] and is probably thought so by most Expositors, who are of opinion, that the _spirit_ of _Python_ with which this Damosel was possessed, is the same which the _spirit of Ob_ was amongst the _Hebrews_. Hence the _Witch of Endor_, whom _Saul_ requested to raise up _Samuel_, is said in _Hebrew_ to have consulted with _Ob_; but among the _Latine_ Expositors she is commonly translated _Pythonissa_, _one possessed with the spirit of Python_.

[512] _Chrysostom. 1 Cor. 12. Tert. adv. Marcion. l. 4. c. 25._

[513] _August. 1. de doct. Christ. c. 23._

The sixth is, ‎‏ידעני‏‎ _Iiddegnoni_, a _Wizard_; in the _Greek_, he is translated sometimes Γνώστης, a _cunning-man_. In both Languages he had his name from _knowledge_, which either the _Wizard_ professed himself to have, or the common people thought him to have. The _Rabbies_ say,[514] he was so called in _Hebrew from a certain beast named by them ~Jadua~, in shape resembling a man, because these Wizards when they did utter their Prophecies, held a bone of this Beast between their teeth_. This haply might be some _Diabolical Sacrament or Ceremony_, used for the Confirmation of the league between _Satan_ and the _Wizard_. _Prophane_ History[515] mentioneth Divinations of the like kind, as that _Magicians_ were wont to eat the principal parts and members of such beasts which they deemed _Prophetical_, thinking thereby, that by a kind of μετεμψύχωσις the Soul of such Beasts would be conveyed into their bodies, whereby they might be enabled for Prophecy.

[514] _P. Fag. Levit. 19. Verum Athenæus bestiam hanc vocat καταβλεπάδα. Vid. Bodin. Mag. dæmon. l. 1. c. 6. p. 18._

[515] _Perer. de Mag. p. 57._

The seventh is ‎‏דורש אל המתים‏‎ _Doresch el hammethim_; the _Greek_ answereth word for word, ἐπερωτῶν τοὺς νεκροὺς, _An enquirer of the Dead, a Necromancer_. Such Diviners consulted with _Satan in the shape of a dead man_. A memorable example we find recorded, _1 Sam. 29._ There, King _Saul_ about to war with the _Philistines_ (God denying to answer him either by _dreams_, or by _Urim_, or by _Prophets_) upon the fame of the _Witch of Endor_, he repaired to her, demanding that _Samuel might be raised up from the dead_, to tell him the issue of the war. Now that this was not in truth _Samuel_, is easily evinced, both by testimonies of the learned, and reasons. _First_, it is improbable, that God who had denied to answer him by any _ordinary means_, should now deign him an answer so extraordinary. _Secondly_, no Witch or Devil can disturb the bodies or Souls of such as die in the Lord, because they rest from their labors, _Rev. 14. 13._ _Thirdly_, if it had been _Samuel_, he would doubtless have reproved _Saul for consulting with Witches_.

The eighth is ‎‏שאל מקלו‏‎ _Scoel maklo_, _A Consulter with his Staff_. _Hos. 4. 12._ _Jerome_ saith the manner of this divination was thus: _That if the doubt were between two or three Cities, which first should be assaulted; to determin this, they wrote the names of the Cities upon certain staves or arrows, which being shaked in a quiver together the first that was pulled out determined the City._ Others[516] deliver the manner of this consultation to have been thus: _The consulter measured his staff by spans or by the length of his finger, saying, as he measured, I will go, I will not go, I will do such a thing, I will not do it, and as the last span fell out, so he determined_: This was termed by the Heathens ῥαβδομαντεία or βελομαντεία, _Divination by rod or arrows_.

[516] _Vid. Drus. in Deut. p. 592._

The ninth was ‎‏ראה בכבד‏‎ _Roe baccabed_, _a diviner by intrales_, _Ezek. 22. 21._ _Nebuchadnezzar_ being to make war both with the _Jews_, and the _Ammonites_, and doubting in the way, against whether of these he should make his first on-set: First he consulted with his _Arrows and Staves_, of which hath been spoken immediately before: _Secondly_, he consulted with the _intrals of beasts_. This practice was generally received among the _Heathens_, and because the _liver_ was the principal member observed, it was called ἡπατοσκοπία, _Consultation with the liver_. Three things are observed in this kind of divination. First, the colour of the intrals, whether they were all well _coloured_. Secondly, their _place_, whether none were _displaced_. Thirdly, the _number_, whether none were wanting; among those that were wanting, the want of the liver, or the heart chiefly presaged ill: That day _Julius Cæsar_ was slain, it is storied, that in two fat Oxen then sacrificed, the heart was wanting in them both.

THE FIFTH BOOK

OF THEIR CONSISTORIES.

CHAP. I.

_Their Courts of Judgment, especially their Ecclesiastical Consistory._

There were in _Israel_ distinct _Courts_, consisting of distinct _persons_, the one principally for _Church-businesses_, the other for _affairs in the Commonwealth_; the one an _Ecclesiastical Consistory_; the other a _Civil Judicatory_:[517] Of these, and their several censures, and punishments, it remaineth now to be spoken.

[517] _Junius Analys. Expos. Deut. 17._

These different Consistories, or _Courts_ of Justice, we find first distinguisht, _Deut. 17. 12._ _He which will not hearken unto the Priest, nor unto the Judge_. Where the people of _Israel_ are directed, in what cases, and to what persons they should make their Appeals from inferiour _Courts_; namely, the _Priests_, _in matters spiritual_, or _ceremonial_, and to the _Judges_, _in matters civil or criminal_. These two Courts are more plainly distinguished, _2 Chron. 19._ where _Jehosaphat_, reforming many abuses in _Church_ and _Commonwealth_, first appointed thorow-out all the fenced Cities of _Judah_, _secular Judges_ to determine criminal causes, _ver. 5._ And at _Jerusalem_ he appointed a _Spiritual Court_, consisting of _Levites, Priests, and the chief Fathers of Israel_, _vers. 8._ And in causes spiritual for the Lord, _Amariah_ the _High priest_ was chief: in causes criminal for the King, _Zebadiah_ was chief, _ver. 11._ Likewise the _Prophet Jeremiah_ is condemned to die by the _Consistory of Priests_, _Jer. 26. 8._ But by the _Consistory of Princes, or secular Judges sitting in the gate_, he was absolved and discharged, _vers. 16._ Yea, although the tyranny of _Antiochus_, and the troublesome times insuing had bred such a confusion in matters of Government among the _Jews_, that an evident distinction can hardly be found in the _New-Testament_, yet some foot-steps, and imperfect tokens of both Courts are there observable, principally, _Matth. 21. 23._ _It._ _Matth. 26. 3._ The _Chief Priests_ and the _Elders_, of the people, are named as two distinct _Consistories_: and each Consistory seemeth to be differenced by its proper name: The _secular Consistory_ termed συνέδριον, A _Councel_: the _spiritual_ termed συναγωγὴ, _a Synagogue_. _They will deliver you up to the Councels, and they will scourge you in their Synagogues_, _Matth. 10. 17._ Hence that great Assembly of _Prophets_ and holy men called together by _Esra_, for the reformation of the _Church_, after their return from _Babylon_, is called _Synagoga magna_, _A great Synagogue_.

The Office of the _Ecclesiastical Court_, was to put a difference between things _holy_ and _unholy_, and between _clean_ and _unclean_, _Levit. 10. 10._ and to _determine Appeals in controversies of difficulty_. It was a _representative Church_. Hence is that _Dic Ecclesiæ_, _Mat. 18. 16._ _Tell the Church_, because unto them belonged the _power of Excommunication_, the several sorts of which censure follow in the next Chapter.

Only here take notice, that as in the _Civil Consistories_, consisting of _seventy Judges_, which was the supreme Court, there were two sate as Chief; namely, one whom they termed _Nasi_, _The Lord Chief Justice_; and the other whom they termed _Abbeth din_, the _Father of the Senate_: so in the _Ecclesiastical Consistory_ the _High-priest_ and his _Sagan_, or _second High priest_ sate chief there, _2 King. 23. 4._ That the _High priest_ sate in the _Sanhedrim_ necessarily, is an errour;[518] for he was not elected into that Company, except he were a man of extraordinary wisdome. Again, note, that sometimes both _Consistories_ assembled together, as often as the matters to be determined were partly _ceremonial_, partly _civil_, partly belonging to the _Church_, partly to the _Commonwealth_: which being not noted, causeth the Courts not to be distinguished by many Expositors. This meeting and joyning of both _Consistories_ often appeareth in the _Gospel_. The _chief Priests_ and _Elders_ meet together.

[518] _Moses Kotsen. in Sanhedrin._

CHAP. II.

_Of their Excommunication._