Jews for the sin of impietie, do but read Histories both divine and humane, to be therein sufficiently informed.
The Jews were heretofore the chosen people, and are become the reprobate. God for them drave back the waves of the read sea, and suffered them to walk drie-foot between two waters, as between two chrystal vaults, and afterward, why did he drown them so many times in rivers of their bloud, with so horrible slaughters, that in the whole siege of Jerusa∣lem under Titus and Vespasian, were reckoned accor∣ding to Josephus his calculation, eleven hundred thou∣sand dead? God opened to them the sides of rocks to quench their thirst, and afterward, why dried he up the dugs of women, who saw their little ones die between their arms, they unable to give them one drop of milk? God for them made Manna and clouds of Quails to showt, and why afterward did he so afflict them with such cruel and enraged a famine, that the hands of mercifull mothers slew and roasted on coals their own proper children, and eat them to satisfie their hunger? God carried them through deserts as upon eagles wings, and wherefore afterward did he abandon them to eagles and vultures, which so many times made carrion of the bodies of his chil∣dren? God had given them a land so fat and fruitful, that it streamed altogether milk and honey, and wherefore afterward had it entrails of iron, denying food to the living, yea, burial to the dead? God gave them strength as a devouring fire, before which all Nations were but as straw, and why afterwards became it the shuttle-cock of the arms of Infidels? God gave them liberty for an inheritance, and why afterward obtained they not so much as an honour∣able servitude? Why at the siege of Jerusalem among so many thousand prisoners, did they so much dis∣dain to make use of a Jew, that there being never a a Cross to crucifie them, they were reserved for beasts to devour them, rather than derive any service from them? God gave them knowledge, and wherefore afterwards became they blockish, idle, and stupid in all learning? God ordained for them the assistance and protection of Angels, and why afterward for∣sook they their Temple, crying out aloud: Let us depart, let us depart from hence? God destined to them Royalty and Empire over neighbouring Nati∣ons, and why afterward had they not one inch of land at their own dispose, and especially of land, where formerly Jerusalem was built, unless they purchased it with money, onely to enjoy it one hour or two in the year, and weep over it, and bedew it with the water of their eyes, after they had so often moistened it with their bloud? God established priest-hood to them, and afterwards what became of Jerusalem the Holy? What became of Solomon's Temple, the mira∣cle of the world? Where is the Propitiatory? the Ta∣ble of Proposition-bread? the Rational, which was before the peoples oracle? Where is the majesty of High-priests, the comeliness of Prelates, the perpetuity of Sacrifices? From whence comes it, that it is above fifteen hundred years ago, since this miserable Nation goes wandering through the Regions of the earth, as abandoned into an eternal exile without Priests, with∣out Temple, without Sacrifice, without Prince. King, or government? O eternal God, how hast thou thrown down thy foot-stool! O God of justice, how hast thou made desolate thy royal Priesthood! O God of vengeance, how hast thou suffered thy Sanctuary to be profaned! Who hath ever heard speech of such a punishment? There have been adulteries, rapines, concussions, gluttonies, yea, and idolatries, which God hath not revenged in this manner? A captivity of three-score and ten years expiated all these sins, but this after fifteen hundred years, to what sin may we attribute it, but to the neglect of the essence of the Word Incarnate? After the time that the Son of God shut his eyes, steeped in tears and bloud, over the mi∣serable Jerusalem, he never hath opened them to afford them mercy. A Lord so sweet, so mild, so clement, as that he raised thieves almost from bloud and robbery, in an instant to thrones of glory, for having acknow∣ledged and confessed his name, so roughly to chastise the neglect of his authority, for the space of so many Ages; what meaneth this, but to prove the opposing of the divine Essence of God, is a crime of all, the most hydeous and unspeakable?
Run over the Histories of antiquity as long as you please, revolve in your memory all the experiences, which your Age may afford, and if you see the im∣pious come to a good end, say, There is no cause of fear. Cain, their Patriarch, banished from the sight of God, lived long like a melancholy spirit among forrests, with a perpetual affrightment, until Lamech took away his life: The Cainists were all drenched in the waters of the deluge: Pharaoh drowned in the Red-sea: Nebuchadnezzar turned into a beast: Ho∣lofernes slain in his bed by the hand of a woman: Se∣nacherib lost one hundred four-score and five thou∣sand men for a blasphemy: Antiochus strucken with a horrible maladie: Birds did eat the tongue of Nica∣nor, and his hand was hanged up over against the Temple: Heliodorus was visibly chastised by Angels: Herodes Agrippa born from the Theater to the bed of death: The President Saturninus strucken blind: Her∣mianus eaten by worms in his Pretourship: Leo the fourth, all covered over with botches and carbun∣cles: Bamba crowned with a diadem of pitch, after his eyes were pulled out: Julian the Apostate struck∣en with a dart from Heaven: Michael the Emperour, who had in his train a heap of young scoffers, that in scorn counterfeited the ceremonies of the Church, was torn in pieces as a victim, by his own servants: Olympius strucken with thunder in a bath. And if we observe times more near: Rogero dragged to a lay∣stall: Vanin burnt at Tholouse: Alsan Calefat divided between fire and water, and slain by his own hand.
Great eye of God, which art ever open upon the sins of the earth, who can steal himself from the light∣ning-flashes? Great hand of God, who thunderest and lightenest perpetually over rebellious heads, who is able to resist thy justice?