To the Author of the Hiftory of the WORKS of the LEARNED.

SIR,

T

HERE is no Nation in the World that has made a more extraordinary Figure in Hiftory than that of the Jews. No People was ever more diftinguished by the Favours and Mercies of Heaven, and none more remarkable for their Idolatries and Rebellions against God, and the dreadful Judgments and Punishments he has inflicted upon them. The firft unhappy Step of this kind was the Worship of the Golden Calf, after fo many repeated Mercies and fignal Deliverances: This, like a fatal Disease, stuck fo close to them fince, and fo corrupted and infected them, that the Jews have a proverbial Saying among them, That there has not been one Judgment inflicted upon Ifrael, but what had at teaft an Ounce of the Golden Calf in it. But fomething perhaps may be faid to excufe and extenuate their Guilt: I mean their Ignorance of their Religion, and the Want of having the Law conftantly read and repeated to them; fince (as fome learned Men have obferved) from the Time of Joshua to the Reign of Jehofaphat, which is commonly reckoned to be 530 Years, we find no Mention at all of the publick Reading of it; nor from that Time to the 18th Year of King Jofiah, which was the Space of 882 Years; nor from that Time till after the Captivity of Babylon; by which Neglect they the more eafily fell into Idolatry, and continued in it more or lefs till that Captivity. And this is the Reason the learned Dean Prideaux affigns why they were fo prone and inclinable to fall into Idolatry before the Captivity, and after that fhew'd

* See Dr. Patrick on Deuter. C. 31.

fuch

fuch an Horror and Averfion to it. Before the Captivity, faith he, they had no Synagogue for publick Worship or publick Inftruction, nor any Places to refort to for either, except the Temple at Jerufalem, or the Cities of the Levites, or to theProphets, when God was pleas'd to fend fuch among them for want hereof, great Ignorance grew among 3 the People. God was little known among them, and his Laws in a Manner were wholly forgotten; and therefore, as Occafion offer'd, they were eafily drawn into all the Superftitions and idolatrous Ufages of the neighbouring Nations that liv'd round about them, till at length, for the Punishment hereof, God gave them up to a difmal Deftruction in the Babylonifh Captivity. But after that Captivity, and the Return of the Jews from it, the Synagogues being erected among them in every City, to which they conftantly, reforted for publick Worfhip, and where every Week they had the Law from the firft; and after that from the Time of Antiochus's Perfecution, the Prophets alfo reading to them, and by Sermons and Exhortations, deliver'd every Sabbath-Day, inftructing them in their Duty, and exciting them to the Obedience of it: This kept them in a thorough Knowledge of God and his Laws; and the Threats which they found in the Prophets against the Breakers of them, after these came alfo to be read among them, deterr'd them from tranfgreffing against them. I know fome learned Men have been of a' different Opinion concerning the Age of the Synagogues, and have thought them of much ancienter Date; namely, foon after the delivering of the Law; and this they ground upon a remarkable Paffage in the Pfalms,† where the Writer, fpeaking of the Enemies of God, faith, That they had de-.

See Prideaux. P. I. L. VI.
Pfalmi lxxiv. 8.

B 2

Brojed

Stroyed the Synagogues of the Lord in the Land; which the Original renders the Houfes or Affemblies. of God. But befides that it can hardly be imagin'd that Mofes, who is fo exact in defcribing the Places, Parts and Manner of the Worfhip of God, would have omitted fuch a material Circumftance as the Building and Founding Synagogues: It may be replied, ift, That thefe Buildings were Lodgings, Veftries and Apartments, which we read were near the Temple for the Conveniency of the Priests that were in waiting, and officiated there. But, 2dly, the most reasonable and probable Account of the Matter feems to be this, that this Pfalm, as well as fome others, and particularly the 137th, was not written by David, but by fome pious Perfon during the Captivity, who in fo moving a Manner defcrib'd the Miferies and Calamities of his Country. But what is more extraordinary in relation to the Jews is, that they who had fo very feverely fmarted for their Idolatry before, fuffer'd in fome Measure as great Misfortunes and Calamities afterwards for the Horror and Averfion which they had conceived against it; I mean in Popifh Nations, where Providence had caft them, and where they could not conform to the Religion of thofe Countries without the Violation of one of their chiefeft Commandments, and being guilty of the moft fhameful and feandalous Idolatry; which, by the Way, I beg Leave to obferve, will always be a ftrong Bar to the Converfion of the Jews, and alfo of the Mahometans, who, like thofe, have an utter Averfion to Idols and Images in the Service of God. These Perfecutions of

the

*Nothing is more ufual than to hear common People call Images Mammets, and Idolatry Mammetry, tho' both are strictly forbidden by the Law of Mahomet. Thus the Clergy of the Church of England, to render them odious, are charg'd with favouring and inclining to the Church of Rome, though every one

know s

the modern Jews, I faid, were in fome Measure occafioned by their utter Averfion to Idolatry, because other Reasons may also be affigned for them: 1ft, The infatiable Avarice of fome Princes, who grafp. ed after their Wealth; 2dly, The cruel and furious Zeal of Popish Priefts, that thirfted after their Blood. Of the first of thefe we cannot want Inftances in the Hiftory of our own Nation: Thus, when Henry the Third, by his Tyranny and Oppreffions of his People, and by his repeated Breach of Faith to his Barons, had brought himself to fuch Neceffity and Diftrefs that he was forced to fell his Plate and Royal Furniture, to break up Housekeeping, and to go with his Wife and Children from one Abbey and Religious Houfe to another, to beg a Dinner and a Meal's Meat for himself and his Family; to make himself eafy, and to repair his fhatter'd Affairs, he fell very heavily upon the Jews, four times moft cruelly pillaged and plunder'd them, and put them to the fad Choice and Dilemma of furnifhing him with 20,000 Marks or remaining in Prifon for their Lives. In his 35th Year + he exacted inestimable Sums from them; namely, of one Aaron, born at York, 14,000 Marks for himself, and 10,000 for the Queen; and before that Time he had taken from the fame Jew as much as amounted to 30,000 Marks of Silver, and 2000 Marks of Gold for the Queen; and not content with thefe Oppreffions, when he had got all he could out of them, he lett and farmed them out like Slaves and Beafts to his Brother Richard, the Duke of Cornwall, (who was not a better, or more compaffionate

knows that no People have a greater Averfion to it. This is what has been confeffed by the great Selden himself, of whom 'tis well known that his Fault was not the being over kind and fa. vourable to the Clergy of our Church.

See Matthew Paris and Sir Robert Cotton. ↑ Stow's Survey of London. B. 3.

Man than himself, to fleece them to the Quick, and to compleat their Ruin; and when the poor People, to avoid fuch barbarous and cruel Ufage, beg'd hard of him to banish them out of the Land, he thought this fo comfortable a Fund to fupply his Neceffities, that he refufed to give them Leave to depart, and forced them to ftay whether they would or no. In which he followed the Example of his Father King John, a worthlefs, cruel and unrelenting Prince. Who can behold, without being fhock'd, a King fitting like an Executioner over his Subjects, commanding their Eyes to be pull'd out to make them discover and give up that which was as dear to them as their Eyes, their Wealth and Treafure, ordering feven Teeth to be pull'd out of a Jew's Mouth, and forcing him to redeem the reft at the Price of 10,000 Marks of Silver; and about the fame Time he defpoil'd the reft of the Jews of 66,000l. more, And even Edward the Firft, who otherwife was none of the worst of Princes, not cruel in his Nature, nor avaricious in his Temper, finding, at his Coming to the Throne, his Finances very low, and his Treafury empty, and having to deal with many Enemies both at Home and Abroad, was obliged to have recourfe to, the fame Expedient, and fqueez'd 12,000 Pounds of Silver at one Time from the Jews: And tho', afham'd of thefe Extortions and Oppreffions, he banish'd them the Realm,

*But how could it be expected he fhould fhew any Favour to thofe of another Religion, when he was fo cruel and barbarous to thofe of his own Faith? Thus when the Abbots and Monks of the Order of Cifteaux came in a Body to beg his Pardon and to make their Submiffion to him, he in a Fury fpurr'd his Horse among them, crush'd them to pieces, and trampl'd them to death. And when Jeffery, the Archdeacon of Norwich, had faid fomething to difoblige him, he order'd him to be caft into Prison, and there to be loaded with fo heavy a Cope of Lead, that by the Weight of it, and the Want of Victuals, he miferably perish'd in the Goal.

yet