1–4. Of the Judaical distribution of the Old Testament. 5–11. The original and nature of their oral law and traditions. 12–14. The whole disproved. 15–20. Agreement of the Jews and Papists about traditions, instanced in sundry particulars.
1. THE apostle, dealing with the Hebrews about the revelation of the will of God made unto their fathers, assigns it in general unto his speaking unto them "in the prophets," chap. 1:1. This speaking unto them, the present Jews affirm to consist of two parts:—(1.) That which Moses and the following prophets were commanded to write for the public use of the church; (2.) What, being delivered only by word of mouth unto Moses, and continued by oral tradition until after the last destruction of the temple, was afterwards committed unto writing. And because those who would read our Exposition of this Epistle, or the Epistle itself, with profit, had need of some insight into the opinions and traditions of the Jews about these things, I shall, for the sake of them that want either skill or leisure to search after them elsewhere, give a brief account of their faith concerning the two heads of revelation mentioned, and therein discover both the principal means and nature of their present apostasy and infidelity.
2. The Scripture of the Old Testament they call מקְרָא, and divide it into three parts:—(1.) הַתּוֹרָה, "The Law;" (2.) נְבִיאִים, "The Prophets;" (3.) כְּתוּבִים, "The Writings by divine Inspiration," which are usually called the "Hagiographa," or holy writings. And this distribution of the books of the Old Testament is in general intimated by our Saviour, Luke 24:44, Πάντα τὰ γεγραμμένα ἐν τῷ Νόμῳ Μωσέως, καὶ Προφήταις, καὶ Ψαλμοῖς·—"All things written in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms;" under which last head all the poetical books of the Scripture are contained. Thus Rabbi Bechai, in Cad Hakkemach: חלקים שלשה התורה כתובים נביאים תורה;—"The Law" (so sometimes they call the whole volume) "is divided into three parts, the Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings." All are comprised generally under the name of the Law; for so they say in Midrash Tehillim, Ps. 78:1, תורה מזמורים תורה והנביאים;—"The Psalms are the Law, and the Prophets are the Law;" that is, the whole Scripture.
This distribution, so far as it is intimated in the words of our Saviour, doth evidently arise from the nature and subject-matter of the books themselves. And this was the received division of the books of the Old Testament whilst the Judaical church stood and continued; but the post- Talmudical doctors, overlooking or neglecting the true reason of this distribution, have fancied others, taken from the different manners and degrees of revelation by which they were given out unto the church. Amongst these they make the revelation to Moses the most excellent, and are very vain in counting the privileges and pre-eminences it had above all others; which are elsewhere examined. In the next degree they place those which proceeded from the spirit of prophecy, which they distinguish from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; yea, in the eleven degrees of divine revelation assigned by Maimonides, More Nebuch., par. ii., that by inspiration is cast into the last and lowest place! But this distinction is groundless, and merely fancied out of the various ways that God was pleased to use in representing things to the minds of the prophets, when it was, in them all, the inspiration of the Holy Ghost alone that enabled them infallibly to declare the mind of God unto the church, 2 Pet. 1:21.
Now, the books thus given by the spirit of prophecy, [in the second degree,] they make of two sorts:—(1.) רִאשֹׁנִים נְבִיאִים, "The former Prophets," which are all the historical books of the Old Testament written before the captivity, as Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Ruth only excepted. (2.) אַחֲרוֹנִים נְבִיאִים, ["The latter Prophets,"] which are all the prophetical books, peculiarly so called, Daniel only excepted,—that is, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets. Of the last sort, or כְתוּבִים, "Kethubim," books written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, are the poetical books of the Scripture,—Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Canticles, Lamentations, with Ecclesiastes; whereunto they add Ruth, Daniel, and the historical books written after the captivity, as the Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah; which make up the canon of the Old Testament. Why sundry of these books should be cast into the last sort, as the story of Ruth and the prophecy of Daniel, they can give no tolerable account. The other books also written after the captivity are plainly of the same nature with those which they call "The former Prophets;" and as for that of Daniel, it contains in it almost all the eminent kinds of revelation whereby themselves would distinguish the spirit of prophecy from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Neither have they any reason for this distribution; but, finding the general division before mentioned to have been received in the church of old, they have disposed of the particular books into their orders at their pleasure; casting Daniel, as is probable, into their last order, because so many of his visions and prophecies relate unto other nations besides their own.
The Law, or the books of Moses, they call חוֹמֶשׁ, or the Pentateuch, from the number of the books; or תּוֹרָה חוּמְשֵׁי חֲמִשָּׁה, "The fives," or "The five parts of the Law;" whereunto Jerome, in his epistle to Paulinus, wrests those words of the apostle, 1 Cor. 14:19, "I had rather speak πέντε λόγους, five words, in the church," as if he had respect to the Law of Moses.
These five books they divide into paraschae, or sections, whereof they read one each Sabbath-day in their synagogues;—Genesis into 12, Exodus into 11, Leviticus into 10, Numbers into 10, Deuteronomy into 10,—which all make 53; whereby, reading one each day, and two in one day, they read through the whole in the course of a year, beginning at the feast of tabernacles. And this they did of old, as James testifies, Acts 15:21, "Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day." Some of them make 54 of these sections, dividing the last section of Genesis into two, beginning the latter at chap. 47:28, constituting the following chapters a distinct section, though it have not the usual note of them prefixed unto it, but only one single samech; to note, as they say, its being absolutely closed or shut up, on the account of the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah, chap. 49, whose season is unknown to them.
3. They also divide it into lesser sections, and those of two sorts, open and close, which have their distinct marks in their Bibles; and many superstitious observations they have about the beginning and ending of them. Of the first sort there are in Genesis 43, of the latter 48; in Exodus, of the first sort 69, of the latter 95; in Leviticus, of the first sort 52, of the latter 46; in Numbers, of the first 92, of the latter 66; in Deuteronomy, of the first sort 34, of the latter 379;—in all 634. Besides, they observe the number of the verses at the end of every book; as also that ו in גָּחוֹן, Lev. 11:42, is the middle letter of the Law; דָּרַשׁ, Lev. 10:16, the middle word; Lev. 13:33 the middle verse; the number of all which through the Law is 23, 206.
Moreover, they divide the Law, or five books of Moses, into 53 סְדָרִים, "sedarim," or distinctions, whereof Genesis contains 42, Exodus 29, Leviticus 23, Numbers 32, Deuteronomy 27; which kind of distinctions they also observe throughout the Scripture, assigning unto Joshua 14, Judges 14, Samuel 34, Kings 35, Isaiah 26, Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 29, the lesser Prophets 21, Psalms 19, Job 8, Proverbs 8, Ecclesiastes 4, Canticles and Lamentations are not divided, Daniel 7, Esther 7, Ezra and Nehemiah 10, Chronicles 25.
Besides, they distribute the Prophets into sections called חַפטֲרוֹת "haphters," that answer the sections which are read every Sabbath-day in their synagogues; and this division of the Prophets they affirm to have been made in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, whom they call הָרֶשַע, "that wicked one," when the reading of the Law was prohibited unto them. All which things are handled at large by others.
4. Having for a long season lost the promise of the Spirit, and therewith all saving spiritual knowledge of the mind and will of God in the Scripture, the best of their employment about it hath been in reference to the words and letters of it; wherein their diligence hath been of use in the preservation of the copies of it entire and free from corruption: for after that the canon of the Old Testament was completed in the days of Ezra, and points or vowels added to the letters, to preserve the knowledge of the tongue and facilitate the right reading and learning of it, it is incredible what industry, diligence, and curiosity, they have used in and about the letter of the whole Scripture. The collection of their pains and observations to this purpose is called the Masora or Masoreth; consisting in critical observations upon the words and letters of the Scripture, begun to be collected of old, even it may be from the days of Ezra, and continued until the time of composing the Talmud, with some additional observations since annexed unto it.
The writers, composers, and gatherers of this work, they call המסורה בעלי; whose principal observations were gathered and published by Rabbi Jacob Chaiim, and annexed to the Venetian Bibles; whereas, before, the Masora was written in other books innumerable. In this, their critical doctrine, they give us the number of the verses of the Scripture, as also how often every word is used in the whole, and with what variety as to letters and vowels; what is the whole number of all the letters in the Bible, and how often each letter is severally used; with innumerable other useful observations: the sum whereof is gathered by Buxtorf in his excellent treatise on that subject. And hereby is the knowledge of their masters bounded; they go not beyond the letter, but are more blind than moles in the spiritual sense of it. And thus they continue an example of the righteous judgment of God, in giving them up to the counsels of their own hearts; and an evident instance how unable the letter of the Scripture is to furnish men with the saving knowledge of the will of God, who enjoy not the Spirit promised in the same covenant to the church of the elect, Isa. 59:21.
5. Unto that ignorance of the mind of God in the Scripture which is spread over them, they have added another prejudice against the truth, in a strange figment of an oral law, which they make equal unto, yea in many things prefer before, that which is written. The Scripture becoming a lifeless letter unto them, the true understanding of the mind of God being utterly departed and hid from them, it was impossible that they should rest therein, or content themselves with what is revealed by it. For as the word, whilst it is enjoyed and used according to the mind of God, and is accompanied with that Spirit which is promised to lead them that believe into all truth, is full of sweetness and life to the souls of men, a perfect rule of walking before God, and that which satiates them with wisdom and knowledge; so when it is enjoyed merely on an outward account as such a writing, without any dispensation of suitable light and grace, it will yield men no satisfaction; which makes them constantly turn aside to other means and ways of knowing and serving God. This being so eminent in the Jews, and the medium they have fixed on to supply that want which they suppose to be in the Scripture, but is indeed in themselves, proving to be the great engine of their hardening and obstinacy in their infidelity, I shall first declare what it is that they intend by the oral law, and then show the absurdity and falseness of their pretensions about it; though it must not be denied that it is one of the most ancient fables that is credited amongst any of the sons of men at this day in the world.
6. This oral law they affirm to be an unwritten tradition and exposition of the written law of Moses, given unto him in Mount Sinai, and committed by him to Joshua and the sanhedrim, to be by them delivered over by oral tradition unto those who should succeed them in the government of that church. It doth not appear that, in the days of Christ or his apostles, whilst the temple was standing, there was any stated opinion amongst them about this oral law; though it is evident that, not long after, it began to be received by the body of the people. Nay, it is evident that there was no such law then acknowledged; for the Sadducees, who utterly reject all the main principles of it, were then not only tolerated, but also in chief rule, one of them being high priest.
That they had multiplied many superstitious observances amongst them, under the name of "traditions," is most clear in the Gospel; and it doth not appear that then they knew whom to assign their original unto, and therefore indefinitely called them "The traditions of the elders," or those that lived of old before them. After the destruction of their temple, when they had lost the life and spirit of that worship which the Scripture revealed, betaking themselves wholly unto their traditional figments, they began to bethink themselves how they might give countenance to their apostasy from the perfection and doctrine of the written law. For this end they began to fancy that these traditions were no less from God than the written law itself. For when Moses was forty days and forty nights in the mountain, they say that, in the day time, he wrote the law from the mouth of God; and in the night, God instructed him in the oral law, or unwritten exposition of it, which they have received by tradition from him. For when he came down from the mount, after he had read unto them the written law, as they say, he repeated to Aaron, and Eleazar, and the sanhedrim, all that secret instruction which he had received in the night from God, which it was not lawful for him to write: but in especial he committed the whole to Joshua; Joshua did the same to Eleazar, as he did to his son Phinehas; after whom they give us a catalogue of several prophets that lived in the ensuing generations, all whom they employ in this service of conveying down the oral law to their successors. Unto the high priests also they give a place in this work; of whom there were eighty-three from the first institution of that office to the destruction of the temple, Joseph. lib. xx. cap. x. From Aaron to the building of Solomon's temple thirteen; from thence to the captivity eighteen; all the rest take up the troublesome time of the apostasy of their church, unto the final ruin of it, their "rulers being many because of their wickedness," as themselves observe.
The last person whom they would have to preserve the oral law absolutely pure was that Simeon whom they call הצדיך, "The just," mentioned by Jesus the son of Sirach, chap. 1. And it is very observable that the later Jews have left out Simeon the son of Hillel, whom their ancient masters placed upon the roll of the preservers of this treasure, supposing he might be that Simeon who in his old age received our Saviour in his arms when he was presented in the temple, Luke 2:25,—a crime sufficient, among the Jews, to brand him with a perpetual ignominy; neither are they alone in turning men's glory into reproach and shame.
7. After the destruction of the temple and city, when the evil husbandmen were slain, and the vineyard of the Lord let out to others, the kingdom given to another nation, and therewith the covenant-sanctified use of the Scripture, the remaining Jews, having lost wholly the mind of God therein, betook themselves to their traditions, and, as I said before, began to fancy and contend that they came from God himself; whereas their predecessors durst not plead any thing for them but that they came unto them from "them of old,"—that is, some of the masters of preceding generations. Hereupon a while after, [A.D. 190,] (as I have elsewhere showed at large,) one of them, whom they call Rabbi Judah Hannasi, and Hakkadosh, the "prince," and the "holy," took upon him to gather their scattered traditions, and to cast them into form, order, and method in writing, that they might be unto the Jews a rule of life and worship for ever. The story of his work and undertaking is given us by Maimonides in Jad Chazachah, the authors of Seder Olam, Halicoth Olam, Tzemach David, and many others; and they all agree that this their great master lived about the times of Marcus Antoninus, two hundred years or thereabouts after the destruction of city and temple.
8. This collection of his they call מִשְׁנָה or מִשְׁנַיוֹת, "Mishnah" or "Mishnaioth," being, as is pretended, a repetition of the law in an exposition of it; indeed, a farrago of all sorts of traditions, true and false, with a monstrous mixture of lies, useless, foolish, and wicked. The things contained in it are, by themselves, referred to five heads:—(1.) The oral law, received by Moses on Mount Sinai, and preserved by the means before declared; (2.) Oral constitutions of Moses himself, after he came down from the mount; (3.) Constitutions and orders, drawn, by various ways of arguing (thirteen, as Rambam tells us), out of the written law;
(4.) The answers and decrees of the sanhedrim and other wise men in former ages; (5.) Immemorial customs, whose original being unknown are supposed to be divine.
9. The whole is divided into six parts, noted with the initial letter of the word which signifies the chief things treated on in it. As the first by ז, z; that is, זרעים, "zeraim," "seeds;" which is divided into eleven "massicktot" or treatises, containing all of them seventy-five chapters. The second by מ, m; that is, מועד, "moad," or "appointed feasts;" which is distributed into twelve "massicktot," containing in them eighty-eight chapters. The third by נ, that is, נשים, "of women;" and is distributed into seven treatises, containing seventy-one chapters. The fourth by נ, that is, נזיקים, "nezikim," about "loss and damage;" and is divided into eight "massicktot," whereof the first is divided into three parts, called בבא בתרא בבא ,קמא בבא ,מציעא, "the first, middle, and last port," or entrance; containing in them thirty chapters, whereunto forty-four are added in the following parts. The fifth by ק, that is, קדשים, "kodoshim," of "sanctifications;" and is divided into eleven books, containing ninety chapters. The sixth with ט, that is, טהרות, "teharoth," of "purifications," in twelve books, and one hundred and twenty-six chapters.
10. Unto the Mishnah of Rabbi Judah they annex the תוסיפות, the "Tosiphot," or additions of Rabbi Chaiah his scholar, expounding many passages in his master's works. To them a more full explanation of the same doctrine of the Mishnah, which they call Baracetot, is subjoined, being the collection of some ante-Talmudical masters. About three hundred years after the destruction of the temple, [A.D. 270,] R. Johanan composed the Jerusalem Talmud, consisting of expositions, comments, and disputes, upon the whole Mishnah, excepting the last part, about purifications. A hundred years or thereabouts after that, [A.D. 420,] Rabbi Ashe composed the Babylonian Talmud, or Gemara. Thirty-two years, they say, he spent in this work, yet leaving it unfinished; seventyone years after, it was completed by his disciples. And the whole work of both these Talmuds may be referred unto five heads; for,—(1.) They expound the text of the Mishnah; (2.) Decide questions of right and fact; (3.) Report the disputations, traditions, and constitutions of the doctors that lived between them and the writing of the Mishnah; (4.) Give allegorical, monstrous, expositions of the Scripture, which they call Midrashoth; and, (5.) Report stories of the like nature.
11. This at length is their oral law grown into; and in the learning and practising of these things consist the whole religion and worship of the Jews, there being not the most absurd saying of any of their doctors in those huge heaps of folly and vanity that they do not equal unto, nay, that they are not ready to prefer before, the written word, that perfect and only guide of their church, whilst God was pleased with it.
In the dust of this confusion, here they dwell, loving this darkness more than light, because their deeds are evil. Having for many generations entertained a prejudicate imagination, that these traditional figments, amongst which their crafty masters have inserted many filthy and blasphemous fables against our Lord Christ and his Gospel, are of divine authority, and having utterly lost the spiritual sense of the written word, they are by it sealed up in blindness and obdurateness; and shall be so until the veil be taken away, when the appointed time of their deliverance shall come. A brief discovery of the falseness of this fancy of their oral law, which is the foundation of all that huge building of lies and vanities that their Talmuds are composed of, shall put an end to this discourse.
12. (1.) The very story of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai sufficiently discovers the folly of this imagination. This oral law the Jews are ready, on all occasions, to prefer before that which is written; and do openly profess that without it the other is of no use unto them! I desire, then, to know whence it is that all the circumstances of the giving and teaching of the less necessary are so exactly recorded, but not one word is spoken of this oral law, either of God's revealing of it to Moses, or of Moses' teaching of it to Joshua or any others. Strange! that so much should be recorded of every circumstance of the less principal, lifeless law, and not one word of either substance or circumstance of that which is, if these men may be believed, the very life and soul of the other. Maimonides, in Jad Chazachah, tells us there is mention made of it in Exod. 24:12: "I will give thee," saith the Lord, "וְהַמִּצְוָה הַתּוֹרָה,—a law and commandment." תּוֹרָה, saith he, is the "written law;" מצְוָה, the "oral:" when the next words are, לְהוֹרֹתָם כָּתַבְתִּי אֲשֶׁר,—"Which I have written, that thou mayest teach them;" the written law being on several accounts expressed by both those terms, and no other. How know they that any such law was given to Moses as they pretend, what testimony, witness, or record of it was had or made at the time of its giving, or in many generations, for two thousand years afterwards?
13. (2.) Did their forefathers at any time before the captivity transgress this oral law, or did they not? If they say they did not, but kept it, and observed it diligently, we may easily see of what importance it is, that the most strict observation of it could not preserve them from all manner of wickedness; and what a hedge it is to the written law, when, notwithstanding the obedience yielded unto it, that was utterly despised and neglected. If they shall say, that law also was broken by them, I desire to know whence it comes to pass, that whereas God by his prophets doth reprove them for all their other sins, and in particular for contempt of his written law, the statutes, ordinances, and institutions of it, he nowhere once mentioneth this their greater guilt of despising the oral law, but there is as universal a silence concerning its transgression as there is of its giving and institution. Can we have any greater evidence of its being fictitious than this, that whereas it is pretended that it is the main rule of their obedience to God, God did never reprove them for the transgression of it, though, whilst he owned them as his church and people, he suffered none of their sins to pass by unreproved, especially not any of that importance which this is by them pretended to be of?
(3.) Moses was commanded to write the whole law that he received from God, and did so accordingly, Exod. 24:3, 4, 34:28; Deut. 31:9, 24. Where was this oral law, which they say was not to be written, when Moses was commanded to write the whole law that he had received of God, and did accordingly? This new law was not then coined, being indeed nothing but the product of their apostasy from the law which was written.
(4.) The sole ground and foundation of this oral law lies in the imperfection of the written law. This is that which they plead for the necessity of it: "The written law extends not to all necessary cases that occur in religion; many things are redundant, many wanting in it;" and hereof they gather great heaps of instances: so that they will grant that if the written law had been perfect, there had been no need of this traditional one. But whom in this matter shall we believe?—a few ignorant Jews, or God himself, bearing witness that his law is perfect, and requiring no more in his worship but what is in that law prescribed? See Ps. 19:7, 8; Prov. 30:5, 6; Deut. 4:1, 2. And this perfection of the written law, though it be perfectly destructive to their traditions, not only the Karaites among themselves do earnestly contend for, but also sundry of their Gemarists do acknowledge, especially when they forget their own concernments out of a desire to oppose the gospel. And to this head belong all the arguments that divines make use of to prove the perfection of the Scripture against the new Talmudists in Christianity.
(5.) God everywhere sends his people to the written law of Moses for the rule of their obedience, nowhere unto any Cabala, Deut. 10:12, 13, 11:32, 28:1; Josh. 1:7, 8, 23:6; 2 Chron. 30:16; Isa. 8:20. If there be such an oral law, it is one that God would not have any man to observe, which he calls none to the obedience of, nor did ever reprove any man for its transgression.
14. And many more arguments of the like nature may be added, to prove the vanity of this pretence. And yet this figment is the bottom of the present Judaical religion and obstinacy. When the apostle wrote this Epistle, their apostasy was not yet arrived at this "rock of offence;" since their falling on it, they have increased their blindness, misery, and ruin. Then they were contented to try their cause by what God spake to their fathers "in the prophets;" which kept open a door of hope, and gave some advantages for their conversion, which are now shut up and removed, until God shall take this veil away from their faces, that they may see to the end of the things that were to be done away.
15. By this means principally have they, for many generations, both shut out the truth and secured themselves from conviction. For whatever is taught and revealed in the Scripture concerning the person, office, and work of the Messiah,—seeing they have that which they esteem a revelation of equal authority herewithal, teaching them a doctrine quite of another nature, and more suited unto their carnal principles and expectations,—they will rest rather in any evasion than give way to the testimony thereof. And whilst they have a firm persuasion, as they have, received by the tradition of many generations, that the written word is imperfect, but a half revelation of the mind of God, in itself unintelligible, and not to be received or understood but according to the sense of their oral law, now recorded in their Talmuds, what can the most plain and cogent testimonies of it avail unto their conviction? And this hath been the fatal way and means of the grand apostasy of both churches, Judaical and Christian. How far that of the Jews was overtaken with it in the days of our Lord's conversation on the earth, the Gospel doth abundantly declare; and how they have brought it unto its height, we have given now some brief account. That of the Roman church hath been the very same; and hath at length arrived unto almost the same issue, by the same degrees. This some of them perceiving, do not only defend the pharisaical opinion among the Jews about the oral law and succession of their traditions, as consonant to the pretensions of their own church, but also openly avow that a very great number of their several respective traditions are either the same, or that they nearly resemble one another; as doth expressly Josephus de Voysin in his Prooemium to the Pugio Fidei of Raymundus Martini. And because it is evident that the same have been the way and means whereby both the Judaical and Roman church have apostatized and departed from the truth, and that they are the same also whereby they maintain and defend themselves in their apostasy and refusal to return unto the truth, I shall, ὡς ἐν παρόδῳ, manifest their consent and agreement in this principle about their traditions and authority of them, which have been the ruin of them both.
16. (1.) The Jews expressly contend that their oral law, their mass of traditions, was from God himself. They say, it was partly delivered unto Moses on Mount Sinai, and partly added by him from divine revelations which he afterwards received. Hence the authority of it with them is no less than that of the written word (which hath all its authority from its divine original), and the usefulness of it is much more. For although they cannot deny but that this and that particular tradition,—that is, practice, custom, or exposition of any place of Scripture,—were first introduced, expressed, and declared, at such or such seasons, by such masters or schools amongst them, yet they will not grant that they were then first invented or found out, but only that they were then first declared, out of the cabalistical abyss wherein they were preserved from their first revelation; as all of them agree who have written any thing about the nature, propagation, and continuance of their oral law.
And this is the persuasion of the Romanists about their Cabala of traditions. They plead them to be all of a divine original, partly from Christ, and partly from his apostles. Whatever they have added unto the written word, yea, though it be never so contrary thereunto, still they pretend that it is part of the oral law which they have received from them by living tradition! Let one convention of their doctors determine that images are to be adored; another, that transubstantiation is to be believed; a third, add a new creed with an equal number of articles unto the old;—let one doctor advance the opinion of purgatory; another, of justification by works: all is one,—these things are not then first invented, but only declared out of that unsearchable treasure of traditions which they have in their custody. Had they not inlaid this persuasion in the minds of men, they know that their whole fabric would, of its own accord, have long since sunk into confusion. But they highly contend, at this day, that they need no other argument to prove any thing to be of a heavenly extract and divine original, but that themselves think so, and practise accordingly.
17. (2.) This oral law being thus given, the preservation of it, seeing Moses is dead long ago, must be inquired after. Now, the Jews assign a threefold depository of it;—first, the whole congregation; secondly, the sanhedrim; and thirdly, the high priest. To this end they affirm that it was three times repeated, upon the descent of Moses from Mount Sinai, as to what of it he had then received, and his after additions had the same promulgation. First, it was repeated by himself unto Aaron; secondly, by them both unto the elders; and thirdly, by the elders unto the whole congregation: or, as Maimonides in Jad Chazachah, Moses delivered it unto Eleazar, Phinehas, and Joshua, after the death of Aaron; by whom the consistory was instructed therein, who taught the people as occasion did require. What the people knew of it is uncertain, but what they did know was quickly lost. The consistory, or great sanhedrim, ואחד שבעים של דין בית, as they call it, "the house of judgment of seventy and one," was more faithful in its charge. Hence Rab. Moses in the same book, Tractat. ממרים, "of rebels" or "transgressors," teacheth us, תורה עיקר הם שבירושלם הנדול דין בית ישראל לכל יוצא ומשפט חק ומהם ההוראה עמורי והם פה שבעל;—"The great consistory" (or house of judgment) "at Jerusalem was the foundation of the oral law: these are the pillars of doctrine, from whom statutes and judgments went forth unto all Israel." And he afterwards affirms, with what truth may be easily judged, מחלוקה היתה לא קים הגדול דין בית משהיה בישראל;—"Whilst this great consistory continued, there was no dissension in Israel:" for not only the famous differences between Hillel and Shammai, with their disciples, which involved all the schools, scribes, and lawyers, among them, arose and were propagated whilst that consistory continued, but also the atheistical sect of the Sadducees rose unto that height and interest as to obtain the presidentship in the sanhedrim itself! But the high priests are those whom they fix upon as the principal conservators of this oral law. To this end they give us catalogues of them from first to last; that, by their uninterrupted succession, we may be secured of the incorrupt preservation of their original traditions. Only it may here be added, by the way, that they bind not themselves precisely, in all their religious observances, unto this oral law, whereunto they assign a divine original; but ascribe an authority unto the sanhedrim and the high priest to constitute things of themselves in the worship of God, beside and beyond the word. For whatever they pretend of their oral law, when they come unto particular instances, they would fain educe the constitutions of it from some word, or letter, or manner of interpretation of the Scripture itself; but those constitutions of the consistory and wise men they ascribe unto their own authority. Some of these are recounted by Maimonides, in his Preface unto Jad Chazachah; as the reading of the book or roll of Esther with fasting; lights on the feast of dedication; the fast on the seventh of Ab, or July; various mixtures and washings of hands;—things plainly of that nature which our Lord Jesus condemned amongst them. And it is observable how he frees them from transgressing that precept, Deut. 12:32, "Thou shalt not add unto this word," by this constitution, אמרו ואילו בעונתה מגלה לקרות או ערוב לעשות צוה הק״בה״ אמרי לא ות״ אומר״ אנו כך אלא התורה על מוסיפין היו כן;—"For," saith he, "they say not that the holy, blessed God hath commanded these things, that there should be such mixtures, that the book of Esther should be read with fasting; for if they should say so, they should add to the law: but thus we speak, 'Such and such a prophet, or the consistory, commanded and appointed that the book of Esther should be read with fasting, to celebrate the glory of the holy, blessed God in our deliverance.' " And so of the rest. It seems, then, they may add what they will of their own, so they entitle [prefix] not the name of God to their inventions: by which means they have set themselves at liberty to multiply superstitious observations at their pleasure; which they had actually done in the days of our Saviour, and thereby "made the law of God of none effect."
In all these things they are followed and imitated by the Romanists. In the same manner do they lay up the stock of their traditions. In general, they make the church the repository of them; although they do not so distinctly explain the way and means whereby they were committed thereunto as the Jews do. Unto the sanhedrim, councils are succeeded in the same office. But their nature, work, authority, assistance, and use, are so variously disputed amongst them, that nothing of certainty from them or by them, singly considered, is to be obtained. It is the high priest, or pope, that is the principal conservator of this sacred treasury of traditions; upon their succession doth the certainty of them depend. And whilst there is a pope at Rome, the knowledge of the new oral law will not fail, as the old one did not whilst the Jews had a high priest; though, in the pursuit of it, they crucified the Messiah, and continue to reject him unto this day. Besides, like the Jews, they content not themselves with what they pretend to be of ancient tradition, but assume a power of making new constitutions in the things of God; whereby they would have us to think they do not violate the prohibition of adding, because they ascribe them not unto the word of God, but to the authority of the present church. Thus far, therefore, they are fully agreed.
18. (3.) The Jews, in favour and unto the honour of these traditions, affirm that the written word without them is imperfect, and not to be understood but as it is interpreted by them. This they are constant unto, and earnestly contend for. Aben Ezra, in his Preface to the Law, discourseth at large of five several ways of the interpretation of it, but concludes at last that the whole written law of Moses is founded on the oral. וזה, saith he, לבב שמחה שהוא פה שבעל תורה על משה שסמך לאות לנו; —"And this is a sign unto us that the law of Moses is founded on the oral law, which is the joy of our hearts." So apt are they to rejoice in a thing of nought! To the same purpose are the words of another famous master amongst them, Rabbi Bechai in Cad Hakkemach: תורה היא התורה עיקר שבע״ף ע״תורה אם כי להתבאר יכולה שבכתב תורה שאין פה שבעל;—"The oral law is the foundation of the written; nor can the written law be expounded but by the oral."
By this being the foundation of the written law, they intend that the sense of it is so inwrapped and contained therein, that without the explications thereof it cannot be understood. And to this end Manasseh, one of their late masters, expressly disputes that in many things it is defective and in some things redundant; so that it is not able to give us a full and clear direction in the things of God without their traditional explications. And, in the confirmation of his opinion, he instanceth in sundry precepts and prohibitions that he would prove so obscure as that no obedience can be yielded unto them in a due manner without the help of the Cabala; which, because for the most part his exceptions from them are childish cavils, and have been answered by others, shall be here passed over. This they are arrived unto; this is the common persuasion of them all; and we shall yet hear what farther progress they have made. And herein are they imitated by their successors. Their oral law also is made by them the foundation of the written.
As those heretics of old, who, having got some sophistical cavils about evil, wherever they met with any one not of their mind, presently fell upon him with their unde malum? whence had evil its original? so thinking to bring him to the acknowledgment of two supreme principles of things, a good one and a bad one: thus, for the most part, the first question of a Romanist is, "How do you know the Scriptures to be the word of God?" and then the next word is, "The Cabala, the פה שבעל תורה, oral law, tradition, these are the foundation of it." And in their progress they fail not to assert two principles, both borrowed from the Jews;—first, That the Scripture is imperfect, and doth not give us a full and complete account of all things that are to be believed and practised, that God may be glorified and our own souls saved; secondly, That what is delivered therein can no way be rightly and truly understood but by the help of those traditions which they have in their custody. But although these are good, useful inventions, and they are men that want not ability to find out what is conducing unto their own advantage, yet they cannot be allowed the credit of being their first authors, seeing they are expressly borrowed of the Jews.
19. (4.) When these two laws, the law of God and their own, do come in competition, the Jews, many of them, do expressly prefer that of their own invention before the other, and that both as to certainty and use. Hence they make it the foundation of their church, and the only safe means to preserve the truth. So are we informed by Isaac Corbulensis in גולה עמורי. "Do not think," saith he, "that the written law is the foundation; for the foundation is the oral law: for by that law was the covenant made, as it is written, 'According to these words do I make a covenant with thee,' Exod. 34:27," (where he takes his argument from that expression, הָאֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים עַל־פִּי, wresting foolishly, as they do all, his oral law from these words, עַל־פְּי, which signify nothing but "according to," nor are any other words intended but those delivered to Moses and written by him.) "And these," he adds, "are the treasures of the holy, blessed God; for he knew that Israel should be carried captive among other people, and that the nations would transcribe their books, and therefore would not commit their secret law to writing."
It seems these things were left them in secret tradition, because God was not willing that any besides themselves should know his mind and will. But they have at last showed themselves more full of benignity towards mankind than they would allow God to be, inasmuch as they have committed this secret law to writing. And to this purpose is their confession in הזהב מזבח, "The Golden Altar:" תורתנו עיקר על לעמור אפשר אי פירושה שהוא שב׳עף תורה ע׳י אם כי שבכתב תורה שהיא הקדושה;—"It is impossible for us to stand or abide upon the foundation of our holy law, which is the written law, unless it be by the oral law, which is the exposition thereof:" wherein they not only declare their judgment concerning their traditions, but also express the reason of their obstinate adherence unto them; which is, that without it they cannot maintain themselves in their present Judaism. And so, indeed, is the case with them. Innumerable testimonies of the Scriptures rising up directly against their infidelity, they were not able to keep their station, but by a horrible corrupting of them through their traditions. On this account it is a common thing with them, in the advice they give unto their disciples, to prefer the study of the Talmud before the study of the Scripture, and the sayings of their wise men before the sayings of the prophets; and they plainly express an utter disregard of the written word, any further than as they suppose the sense of it explained in their oral law. Neither are they here forsaken by their associates. The principal design of all the books which have been lately published by the Romanists, and they have not been a few, hath been to prove the certainty and sufficiency of their traditions in matters of their faith and worship above that of the written word.
20. (5.) There are some few remaining, among the eastern Jews, who reject all this story concerning the oral law, and professedly adhere unto the written word only. These the masters of their present religion and persuasion do, by common consent, brand as heretics, calling them Scripturists, or Scripturarians, or Biblists,—the very name of reproach wherewith the Romanists stigmatize all those who reject their traditions. These are their קראים, that is, "Biblists" or "Scripturarians;" and everywhere they term them מינאים, "Heretics," and endeavour to prove them guilty מינות, of "heresy" in the highest degree. Some of them would have them to be the offspring of the old Sadducees, to deny the resurrection and the world to come; as men care not much, usually, what they impute unto those whom they esteem heretics. But the falsity hereof is notorious, and so acknowledged by others, and confuted by the writings of the Karaites themselves: yea, the author of Cosri affirms that they are more studious in the law than the rabbins; and that their reasons are more weighty than theirs, and lead more towards the naked sense of the Scripture. But this is that which they charge upon them, namely, that, rejecting the sure rule of their traditions, they ran into singular expositions of the law, and so divided it, and made many laws of it, having no certain means of agreement among themselves. So saith Rabbi Jehuda Levita, the author of the fore-mentioned Cosri: סבדתם כפי הקראים חתורות ירבו,—"The Karaites multiply laws according to their own opinion;" which he inveighs against them for, after he had commended them. And the same is objected against them by Maimonides in Pirke Aboth: as though it were not known that the greatest part of their Talmud, the sacred treasury of their oral law, is taken up with differences and disputes of their masters among themselves, with a multitude of various opinions and contradictory conceptions about their traditions. Thus deal the Romanists also with their adversaries, this they charge them withal. They are heretics, Biblists; and, by adhering to the Scripture alone, have no certainty among themselves, but run into diversities of opinion, having deserted the unerring rule of their Cabala;—when the world is filled with the noise of their own conflicts, notwithstanding the pretended relief which they have thereby.
It remains that we consider how these traditions come to be communicated unto others, out of the secret storehouse wherein originally they were deposited. This, as I have elsewhere and partly before declared, was by their being committed unto writing by Rabbi Judah Hakkadosh; whose collections, with their expositions in their Talmud, do give us a perfect account, if we may believe them, of that secret law which came down unto them by oral tradition from Moses. And something like hereunto is by the Romanists pretended. Many of their traditions, they say, are recorded in the rescripts of popes, decrees of councils, and constitutions of the canon law, and the like sacred means of the declaration of the oral instructions of our Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles.
But herein the Jews deal with us far more ingenuously than they. They tell us plainly that now their whole oral law is written, and that they have no reserve of authentic traditions not yet declared. So that where Austin says of his adversaries, "Nescit habere, praeter scripturas legitimas et propheticas, Judaeos quasdam traditiones suas quas non scriptas habent, sed memoriter tenent, et alter in alterum loquendo transfundit, quam deuterosin vocant," either he knew not of the Mishnah that was then written, or this opinion of secret traditions was continued until the finishing and promulgation of the Babylonian Talmud, which was sundry years after his death. But here the Romanists fail us; for although they have given us "heaps upon heaps" of their traditions, by the means afore mentioned, yet they plead that they have still an inexhaustible treasure of them, laid up in their church stores and breast of their holy father, to be drawn forth at all times, as occasion shall require.
And thus have we taken a brief prospect of the consent of both the apostatical churches in that principle which hath been the means of their apostasy, and is the great engine whereby they are rendered incurable therein.
