VERS. XXII.
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The baptism that I am baptized with.
THE phrase that goes before this, concerning the cup, is taken from divers places of Scripture, where sad and grievous things are compared to draughts of a bitter cup. You may think that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The cup of vengeance, of which there is mention in Bab. Beracoth i 1.1, means the same thing, but it is far otherwise; give me leave to quote it, though it be somewhat out of our bounds: Let them not talk, say they, over their cup of blessing, and let them not bless over their cup of vengeance. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 What is the cup of vengeance? The second cup, saith R. Nachman bar Isaac. Rabbena Asher and Piske are more clear: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 If he shall drink off two cups, let him not bless over the third. The Gloss, He that drinks off double cups is punisht by Devils. But to the matter before us.
So cruel a thing was the Baptism of the Jews, being a plunging of the whole body into water when it was never so much chilled with Ice and snow, that not without cause, part∣ly by reason of the burying as I may call it, under water, and partly by reason of the cold, it us'd to signifie the most cruel kind of death. The Hierusalem Talmudists relate, That in the days of Joshua ben Levi, some endeavoured quite to take away the washings (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Bap∣tisms) of women, because the women of Galilee grew barren by reason of the coldness of the waters k 1.2, which we noted before at the sixth verse of the third Chapter.