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their brethren of Benjamin: they were || carried Manasseh prisoner to Babylon. twice routed by the Benjamites, and Manasseh repented, and the Lord forty thousand of them were slain. In brought him back to his kingdom, the third, however, all the Benjamites where he promoted the reformation; were slain, except six hundred. Vexed but his son Amon defaced all. Josiah, for the loss of a tribe, the other Hebrews however, again promoted it, and carprovided wives for these six hundred, at ried it to a higher pitch than in the the expense of slaying most of the in- reigns of David and Solomon. After Johabitants of Jabesh Gilead. Their re- siah was slain by Pharaoh Necho, king lapses into idolatry also brought on of Egypt, the people returned to idolathem repeated turns of slavery from the try, and God gave them up to servitude heathen among or around them. See to the Egyptians and the Chaldeans. books of Judges and Samuel. Having The fate of their kings Jehoaz, Jehoiabeen governed by judges for about three kim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, was unhundred and forty years, after the happy. Provoked by Zedekiah treachdeath of Joshua they took a fancy to ery, Nebuchadnezzar invaded the kinghave a king. Saul was their first so- dom, murdered vast numbers, and revereign, under whose reign they had duced them to captivity. Thus the perpetual struggles with the Ammon- kingdom of Judah was ruined, A. M. ites, Moabites, and Philistines. After 3416, about three hundred and eightyabout seven years' struggling between eight years after its division from that the eleven tribes that clave to Ishbo- of the ten tribes. In the seventieth sheth, the son of Saul, and the tribe of year from the begun captivity, the Judah, which erected themselves into a Jews, according to the edict of Cyrus, kingdom under David, David became king of Persia, who had overturned the sole monarch. Under him_they sub-empire of Chaldea, returned to their dued their neighbours, the Philistines, own country. See Nehemiah, Ezra. Edomites, and others; and took pos- Vast numbers of them, who had agreesession of the whole dominion which able settlements, remained in Babylon. had been promised them, from the bor- After their return they rebuilt the temder of Egypt to the banks of the Eu-ple and city of Jerusalem, put away their phrates. Under Solomon they had lit- strange wives, and renewed their covetle war: when he died, ten of the He- nant with God. brew tribes formed a kingdom of Israel, or Ephraim for themselves, under Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, in opposition to the kingdom of Judah and Benjamin, ruled by the family of David. The kingdom of Israel, Ephraim, or the ten tribes, had never so much as one pious king: idolatry was always their established religion. The kingdom of Judah had pious and wicked sovereigns by turns, though they often relapsed into idolatry, which brought great distress upon them. See books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Not only the kingdom of Israel, but that of Judah, was brought to the very brink of ruin after the death of Jehoshaphat. After various changes, sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse, the kingdom of Israel was ruined, two hundred and fifty-four years after its erection, by So, king of Egypt, and Halmanaser, king of Assyria, who invaded it, and destroyed most of the people. Judah was invaded by Sennacherib; but Hezekiah's piety, and Isaiah's prayer, were the means of their preservatien: but under Manasseh, the Jews abandoned themselves to horrid impiety: for which they were punished by Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who invaded and reduced the kingdom, and

About 3490, or 3546, they escaped the ruin designed them by Haman. About 3653, Darius Ochus, king of Persia, ravaged part of Judea, and carried off a great many prisoners. When Alexander was in Canaan, about 3670, he confirmed to them all their privileges; and, having built Alexandria, he settled vast numbers of them there. About fourteen years after, Ptolemy Lages, the Greek king of Egypt, ravaged Judea, and carried one hundred thousand prisoners to Egypt, but used them kindly, and assigned them many places of trust. About eight years after, he transported another multitude of Jews to Egypt, and gave them considerable privileges. About the same time, Seleucus Nicator, having built about thirty new cities in Asia, settled in them as many Jews as he could; and Ptolemy Philadelphus, of Egypt, about 3720, bought the freedom of all the Jews slaves in Egypt. Antiochus Epiphanes, about 3834, enraged with them for rejoicing at the report of his death, and for the peculiar form of their worship, in his return from Egypt, forced his way into Jerusalem, and murdered forty thousand of them; and about two years after he ordered his troops to pillage the cities of Judea, and murder the men, and sell

shall be eternally our God.-3. That God is incorporeal, and cannot have any material properties; and no corporeal essence can be compared with him.-4. That God is the beginning and end of all things, and shall eternally subsist.— 5. That God alone ought to be worshipped, and none beside him is to be adored.-6. That whatever has been taught by the prophets is true.-7. That Moses is the head and father of all contemporary doctors, of those who lived before or shall live after him.-8. That the law was given by Moses.-9. That the law shall never be altered, and that God will give no other.-10. That God knows all the thoughts and actions of men.-11. That God will regard the works of all those who have performed what he commands, and punish those who have transgressed his laws.-12. That the Messiah is to come, though he tarry a long time.-13. That there shall be a resurrection of the dead when God shall think fit.

the women and children for slaves. || commonly reckon but thirteen articles Multitudes were killed, and ten thou- of their faith. Maimonides, a famous sand prisoners carried off; the temple Jewish rabbi, reduced them to this numwas dedicated to Olympius, an idof of ber when he drew up their confession Greece, and the Jews exposed to the about the end of the eleventh century, basest treatment. Mattathias, the priest, and it was generally received. All the with his sons, chiefly Judas, Jonathan, Jews are obliged to live and die in the and Simon, who were called Maccabees, profession of these thirteen articles, bravely fought for their religion and li- which are as follow:-1. That God is berties. Judas, who succeeded his fa- the creator of all things; that he guides ther about 3840 gave Nicanor and the and supports all creatures: that he has king's troops a terrible defeat, regained done every thing; and that he still acts, the temple, and dedicated it anew, re- and shall act during the whole eternity. stored the daily worship, and repaired -2. That God is one: there is no unity Jerusalem, which was almost in a ruin-like his. He alone hath been, is, and ous heap. After his death, Jonathan and Simon, his brethren, successively succeeded him; and both wisely and bravely promoted the welfare of the church and state. Simon was succeeded by his son Hircanus, who subdued Idumea, and reduced the Samaritans. In 3899 he was succeeded by his son Janneus, who reduced the Philistines, the Country of Moab, Ammon, Gilead, and part of Arabia. Under these three reigns alone the Jewish nation was independent after the captivity. After the death of the widow of Janneus, who governed nine years, the nation was almost ruined with civil broils. In 3939, Aristobulus invited the Romans to assist him against Hircanus, his elder bro- | ther. The country was quickly reduced, and Jerusalem took by force; and Pompey, and a number of his officers, pushed their way into the sanctuary, if not into the Holy of Holies, to view the furniture thereof. Nine years after, Crassus the Roman general, pillaged the temple of its valuables. After Judea had for more than thirty years been a scene of ravage and blood, and twenty-four of which had been oppressed by Herod the Great, Herod got himself installed in the kingdom. About twenty years before our Saviour's birth, he, with the Jews' consent, began to build the temple. About this time the Jews had hopes of the Messiah; and about A. M. 4000, Christ actually came, whom Herod (instigated by the fear of losing his throne) sought to murder. The Jews, however, a few excepted, rejected the Messiah, and put him to death. The sceptre was now wholly departed from Judah; and Judea, about twenty-seven years before, reduced to a province. The Jews since that time, have been scattered, contemned, persecuted, and enslaved among all nations, not mixed with any in the common manner, but have remained as a body distinct by themselves.

2. Jews, sentiments of. The Jews

The modern Jews adhere still as closely to the Mosaic dispensation, as their despersed and despised condition will permit them. Their service consists chiefly in reading the law in their synagogues, together with a variety of prayers. They use no sacrifices since the destruction of the temple. They repeat blessings and particular praises to God, not only in their prayers, but on all accidental occasions, and in almost all their actions. They go to prayers three times a day in their synagogues. Their sermons are not made in Hebrew, which few of them now perfectly understand, but in the language of the country where they reside. They are forbidden all vain swearing, and pronouncing any of the names of God without necessity. They abstain from meats prohibited by the Levitical law; for which reason, whatever they eat must be dressed by Jews, and after a manner peculiar to themselves. As soon as a child can speak, they teach him to read and trans

cus, Grand Cairo, and in some other places of the east; but especially at Sichem, now called Naplouse, which is risen out of the ruins of the ancient Samaria, where they sacrificed not many years ago, having a place for this purpose on Mount Genzim.

late the Bible into the language of the || but are despised by the Jews, because country where they live. In general they receive only the Pentateuch, and they observe the same ceremonies observe different ceremonies from theirs. which were practised by their ancestors They declare they are no Sadducees, in the celebration of the passover. They but acknowledge the spirituality and acknowledge a two-fold law of God, a immortality of the soul. There are written and an unwritten one; the for-numbers of this sect at Gaza, Damasmer is contained in the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses; the latter, they pretend, was delivered by God to Moses, and handed down from him by oral tradition, and now to be received as of equal authority with the former. They assert the perpetuity of their law, together with its perfection. They deny the accomplishment of the prophecies in the person of Christ; alleging that the Messiah is not yet come, and that he will make his appearance with the greatest worldly pomp and grandeur. subduing all nations before him, and subjecting them to the house of Judah. Since the prophets have predicted his mean condition and sufferings, they confidently talk of two Messiahs; one BenEphraim, whom they grant to be a person of a mean and afflicted condition in this world; and the other Ben David, who shall be a victorious and powerful prince.

The Jews pray for the souls of the dead, because they suppose there is a paradise for the souls of good men, where they enjoy glory in the presence of God. They believe that the souls of the wicked are tormented in hell with fire and other punishments; that some are condemned to be punished in this manner for ever, while others continue only for a limited time; and this they call purgatory, which is not different from hell in respect of the place, but of the duration. They suppose no Jew, unless guilty of heresy, or certain crimes specified by the rabbins, shall continue in purgatory above a twelvemonth; and that there are but few who suffer eternal punishment.

Almost all the modern Jews are Pharisees, and are as much attached to tradition as their ancestors were; and assert that whoever rejects the oral law deserves death. Hence they entertain an implacable hatred to the Caraites, who adhere to the text of Moses, rejecting the rabbinistical interpretation. See CARAITES.

There are still some of the Sadducees in Africa, and in several other places; but they are few in number: at least there are but very few who declare openly for these opinions,

There are to this day some remains of the ancient sect of the Samaritans, who are zealous for the law of Moses,

David Levi, a learned Jew, who in 1796 published "Dissertations on the Prophecies of the Old Testament," observes in that work, that deism and infidelity have made such large strides in the world, that they have at length reached even to the Jewish nation; many of whom are at this time so greatly infected with scepticism, by reading Bolingbroke, Hume, Voltaire, &c. that they scarcely believe in a revelation; much less have they any hope in their future restoration.

3. Jews, calamities of-All history cannot funish us with a parallel to the calamities and miseries of the Jews; rapine and murder, famine and pestilence, within; fire and sword, and all the terrors of war, without. Our Saviour wept at the foresight of these calamities; and it is almost impossible for persons of any humanity to read the account with out being affected. The predictions concerning them were remarkable, and the calamities that came upon them were the greatest the world ever saw. Deut. xxviii. xxix. Matt. xxiv. Now, what heinous sin was it that could be the cause of such heavy judgments? Can any other be assigned than what the Scripture assigns? 1 Thess. ii. 15, 16. "They both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and persecuted the apostles: and so filled up their sins, and wrath came upon them to the uttermost." It is hardly possible to consider the nature and extent of their sufferings, and not conclude the Jews' own imprecation to be singularly fulfilled upon them, Matt. xxvii. 25. "His blood be on us and our children." At Cesarea twenty thousand of the Jews were killed by the Syrians in their mutual broils. At Damascus ten thousand unarmed Jews were killed: and at Bethshan the Heathen inhabitants caused their Jewish neighbours to assist them against their brethren, and then murdered thirteen thousand of these inhabitants. At Alexandria the Jews murdered multitudes of the Heathens, and were mur

dered in their turn to about fifty thou-
sand. The Romans under Vespasian
invaded the country, and took the cities
of Galilee, Chorazen, Bethsaida, Ca-
pernaum, &c. where Christ had been
especially rejected, and murdered num-
bers of the inhabitants. At Jerusalem
the scene was most wretched of all. At
the passover, when there might be two
or three millions of people in the city,
the Romans surrounded it with troops,
trenches, and walls, that none might es-
cape. The three different factions with-
in murdered one another. Titus, one of
the most merciful generals that ever
breathed, did all in his power to per-
suade them to an advantageous surren-
der, but they scorned every proposal.
The multitudes of unburied carcasses
corrupted the air, and produced a pesti
lence. The people fed on one another;
and even ladies, it is said, broiled their
sucking infants, and ate them. After a
siege of six months, the city was taken.
They murdered almost every Jew they
met with. Titus was bent to save the
temple, but could not: there were six
thousand Jews who had taken shelter
in it, all burnt or murdered! The out-
cries of the Jews, when they saw it,
were most dreadful: the whole city,
except three towers and a small part of
the wall, were razed to the ground, and
the foundations of the temple and other
places were ploughed up. Soon after
the forts of Herodian and Macheron
were taken, the garrison of Massada
murdered themselves rather than sur-
render. At Jerusalem alone, it is said,
one million one hundred thousand pe-
rished by sword, famine, and pestilence.
In other places we hear of two hundred
and fifty thousand that were cut off, be-
sides vast numbers sent into Egypt to
labour as slaves. About fifty years af-
ter, the Jews murdered about five hun-
dred thousand of the Roman subjects,
for which they were severely punished
by Trajan. About 130, one Barocaba
pretended that he was the Messiah,
and raised a Jewish army of two hun-
dred thousand, who murdered all the
Heathens and Christians who came in
their way; but he was defeated by
Adrian's forces. In this war, it is said,
about sixty thousand Jews were slain,
and perished. Adrian built a city on
Mount Calvary, and erected a marble
statue of swine over the gate that led to
Bethlehem. No Jew was allowed to en-
ter the city, or to look to it at a distance,
under pain of death. In 360 they began
to rebuild their city and temple; but a
terrible earthquake and flames of fire
issuing from the earth, killed the work- ||

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men, and scattered their materials. Nor till the seventh century durst they so much as creep over the rubbish to bewail it, without bribing the guards. In the third, fourth, and fifth centuries, there were many of them furiously harassed and murdered. In the sixth century twenty thousand of them were slain, and as many taken and sold for slaves. In 602 they were severely punished for their horrible massacre of the Christians at Antioch. In Spain, in 700, they were ordered to be enslaved. In the eighth and ninth centuries they were greatly derided and abused; in some places they were made to wear leathern girdles, and ride without stirrups on asses and mules. In France and Spain they were much insulted. In the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, their miseries rather increased: they were greatly persecuted in Egypt. Besides what they suffered in the East by the Turkish and sacred war, it is shocking to think what multitudes of them the eight croisades murdered in Germany, Hungary, Lesser Asia, and elsewhere: In France multitudes were burnt.-In England, in 1020, they were banished; and at the coronation of Richard I. the mob fell upon them, and murdered a great many of them. About one thousand five hundred of them were burnt in the palace in the city of York, which they set fire to, themselves, after killing their wives and children. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries their condition was no better. In Egypt, Canaan, and Syria, the croisaders still harassed them. Provoked with their mad running after pretended Messiahs, Califf Nasser scarce left any of them alive in his dominions of Mesopotamia. In Persia, the Tartars murdered them in multitudes. In Spain, Ferdinand persecuted them furiously. About 1349, the terrible massacre of them at Toledo forced many of them to murder themselves, or change their religion. About 1253, many were murdered, and others banished from France, but in 1275 recalled. In 1320 and 1330, the croisades of the fanatic shepherds, who wasted the south of France, massacred them; besides fifteen hundred that were murdered on another occasion. In 1358 they were totally banished from France, since which few of them have entered that country. In 1291 king Edward expelled them from England, to the number of one hundred and sixty thousand. In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, their misery continued. In Persia they have been terribly used: from 1663 to 1666, the murder of them

was so universal, that but a few escaped ||ercised upon this people are terrible, to Turkey. In Portugal and Spain they extending to the men, the religion, and have been miserably handled. About the very land in which they dwelt. The 1392, six or eight hundred thousand ceremonies essential to their religion were banished from Spain. Some were can no more be observed: the ritual drowned in their passage to Africa; law, which cast a splendour on the nasome by hard usage; and many of their tional worship, and struck the Pagans carcasses lay in the fields till the wild so much that they sent their presents beasts devoured them. In Germany and their victims to Jerusalem, is absothey have endured many hardships lutely fallen, for they have no temple, They have been banished from Bohe-no altar, no sacrifices. Their land itself mia, Bavaria, Cologne, Nuremberg. seems to lie under a never-ceasing curse. Augsburg, and Vienna: they have been || Pagans, Christians, Mohammedans, in terribly massacred in Morava, and a word, almost all nations have by plundered in Bonn and Bamberg. Except in Portugal and Spain, their present condition is generally tolerable. In Holland, Poland, and at Frankfort and Hamburgh they have their liberty. They have repeatedly, but in vain, attempted to obtain a naturalization in England, and other nations among whom they are scattered.

turns seized and held Jerusalem. To the Jew only hath God refused the possession of this small tract of ground, so supremely necessary for him, since he ought to worship on this mountain. A Jewish writer hath affirmed, that it is long since any Jew has been settled near Jerusalem: scarcely can they purchase there six feet of land for a bury

and a patience so long exercised, it is preserved by a particular providence. The Jew ought to be weary of expecting a Messiah, who so unkindly disappoints his vain hopes: and the Christian ought to have his attention and his regard excited towards men whom God preserves, for so great at length of time, under calamities which would have been the total ruin of any other people."

4. Jews, preservation of." The pre-ing-place. servation of the Jews," says Basnage, In all this there is no exaggeration: "in the midst of the miseries which I am only pointing out known facts: they have undergone during 1700 years, and far from having the least design to is the greatest prodigy that can be ima- raise an odium against the nation from gined. Religions depend on temporal its miseries, I conclude that it ought to prosperity; they triumph under the be looked upon as one of those prodigies protection of a conqueror: they languish which we admire without comprehendand sink with sinking monarchies. Pa-ing: since, in spite of evils so durable, ganism which once covered the earth, is extinct. The Christian church, glorious in its martyrs, yet was considerably diminished by the persecutions to which it was exposed; nor was it easy to repair the breaches in it made by those acts of violence. But here we behold a church hated and persecuted for 1700 ages, and yet sustaining itself, and widely extended. Kings have often employed the severity of edicts and the hand of 5. Jews, number and dispersion of.executioners to ruin it. The seditious They are looked upon to be as numermultitudes, by murders and massacres, ous at present as they were formerly in have committed outrages against it still the land of Canaan. Some have rated more violent and tragical. Princes and them at three millions, and others more people, Pagans, Mahometans, Chris- than double that number. Their dispertians, disagreeing in so many things, sion is a remarkable particular in this have united in the design of extermina-people. They swarm all over the east, ting it, and have not been able to succeed. The bush of Moses, surrounded with flames, ever burns, and is never consumed. The Jews have been expelled, in different times, from every part of the world, which hath only served to spread them in all regions. From age to age they have been exposed to misery and persecution; yet still they subsist, in spite of the ignominy and the hatred which hath pursued them in all places, whilst the greatest monarchies are fallen, and nothing remains of them besides the name.

and are settled, it is said, in the remotest parts of China. The Turkish empire abounds with them. There are more of them at Constantinople and Salonichi than in any other place: they are spread through most of the nations of Europe and Africa, and many families of them are established in the West Indies; not to mention whole nations bordering on Prester John's country, and some discovered in the inner parts of America, if we may give any credit to their own writers. Their being always in rebellions (as Addison observes) The judgments which God has ex-while they had the Holy Temple in

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