to have wrought many miracles. He raised an army against the king, but was taken and imprisoned, and having escaped, was again seized, and was beheaded. Benjamin Tudelensis and Solomon Ben Virgæ have given us an account, abounding with lies, concerning the wonders wrought by this inchanter.

A. D. 1497 We find another Messias, whose name was Ismael Sophus, who deluded the Jews in Spain.

A. D. 1500. Rabbi Lemlem, a German Jew of Austria, declared himself a forerunner of the Messias, and pulled down his own oven, promising his brethren that they should bake their bread in the Holy Land next year.

A. D. 1509. Jo. Henricus Majus, in his Life of Reuchlin, says that one Pfefferkorn, a Jew of Cologn, pretended to be the Messias. Pfefferkorn afterwards turned Christian, and joined with James Hochstrat (an inquisitor, and a man thoroughly qualified for this vile office) to plague the Jews and to persecute Reuchlin. This quarrel excited some wit to write the Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum, in which Hochstrat and his stupid monks and doctors are set in a ridiculous light, and make a very drole figure. Bayle gives an account of these disputes in his Dict. Hосп

STRAT.

A. D. 1534. In Spain, Rabbi Salomo Malcho, giving out that he was the Messias, was burnt by Charles the fifth; and the Christians were so superstitious, that they stopped the Rabbi's mouth, when they brought him to the stake, lest by uttering some charm,

he

he should escape out of their hands. The poor wretch was a sort of martyr, for it is said that he might have saved his life if he would have renounced Judaism.

A. D. 1615. A false Christ arose in the East Indies, and was followed by the Portuguese Jews.

A. D. 1624. Another in the low countries pretended to be the Messias, of the family of David, and of the line of Nathan. He promised to destroy Rome, and to overthrow the kingdom of Antichrist, and the Turkish empire.

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"A. D. 1666. This was a year of great expecta❝tion, and some wonderful thing was looked for by "many. This was a fit time for an impostor to set up; and accordingly lying reports were carried a"bout. It was told about that great multitudes "marched from unknown parts to the remote deserts "of Arabia, and they were supposed to be the ten "tribes of Israel, who have been dispersed for many

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ages; that a ship was arrived in the north parts of "Scotland with sails and cordage of silk, that the "mariners spake nothing but Hebrew, that on the "sails was this motto, THE TWELVE TRIBES OF IS"RAEL. Thus were credulous men possessed at that "time."

"Then it was that Sabatai Sevi appeared at Smyrna, "and professed himself to be the Messias. He pro"mised the Jews deliverance and a prosperous king

dom. This which he promised they firmly be"lieved. The Jews now attended to no business, "discoursed of nothing but of their return, and be"lieved Sabatai to be the Messias as firmly as we "Christians

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"Christians believe any article of faith. A right "reverend person, then in Turkey, told me that "meeting with a Jew of his acquaintance at Aleppo, he asked him what he thought of Sabatai. The Jew replied, that he believed him to be the Messias, and "that he was so far of that belief, that if he should prove an impostor, he would then turn Christian. "It will be very fit I should be very particular in this relation, because the history is so very surprising and "remarkable; and we have the account of it from "those who were then in Turkey, and are now alive. "I am so well satisfied as to the facts, that I dare "vouch for the truth of the relation, and appeal for "the truth of it to very many persons of great credit, "who are now alive.

"Sabatai Sevi was the son of Mordecai Sevi, a mean "Jew of Smyrna. Sabatai was very bookish, and "arrived to a great skill in the Hebrew learning. "He was the author of a new doctrine, and for it "was expelled the city. He went thence to Salonichi, "of old called Thessalonica, where he married a very "handsome woman, and was divorced from her. "Then he travelled into the Morea, then to Tripoli, "Gaza, and Jerusalem. By the way he picked up a third wife. At Jerusalem he began to reform "the Jews constitutions, and abolish one of their "solemn fasts, and communicated his design of

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fessing himself the Messias to one Nathan. He "was pleased with it, and sets up for his Elias or "forerunner, and took upon him to abolish all the Jewish fasts, as not beseeming, when the bride66 groom was now come. Nathan prophesies that the Messias should appear before the grand Seig

"nior in less than two years, and take from him his 66 crown, and lead him in chains.

"At Gaza, Sabatai preached repentance, together "with a faith in himself, so effectually, that the people gave themselves up to their devotions and alms. "The noise of this Messias began to fill all places. "Sabatai now resolves for Smyrna, and then for Con"stantinople. Nathan writes to him from Damascus ; "and thus he begins his letter, To the King, our king, Lord of lords, who gathers the dispersed of Is"rael, who redeems our captivity, the man elevated to "the heighth of all sublimity, the Messias of the God of Jacob, the true Messias, the celestial Lion, Sabatai "Sevi.

"And now throughout Turkey the Jews were in great expectation of glorious times. They now were devout and penitent, that they might not ob"struct the good which they hoped for. Some fast"ed so long that they were famished to death; "others buried themselves in the earth till their limbs grew stiff; some would endure melting wax drop

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ped on their flesh; some rolled in snow, others in "a cold season would put themselves into cold wa"ter; and many whipped themselves. Business

was laid aside, superfluities of household utensils "were sold; the poor were provided for by immense "contributions. Sabatai comes to Smyrna, where "he was adored by the people, though the Chacham "contradicted him, for which he was removed from "his office. There he in writing styles himself the only and first-born Son of God, the Messias, the Savi"our of Israel. And though he met with some opposition, yet he prevailed there at last, to that degree, that some of his followers prophesied, and fell

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"into strange extasies; four hundred men and women prophesied of his growing kingdom; and "young infants who could hardly speak, would

plainly pronounce Sabatai, Messias, and Son of God. "The people were for a time possessed, and voices "heard from their bowels; some fell into trances, "foamed at the mouth, recounted their future prosperity, their visions of the Lion of Judah, and the "triumphs of Sabatai. All which (says the relator) "were certainly true, being effects of diabolical delu"sions, as the Jews themselves have since confessed "unto me.

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"Now the impostor swells and assumes.

Where

"as the Jews in their synagogues were wont to pray "for the Grand Seignior, he orders those prayers to "be forborn for the future, thinking it an indecent "thing to pray for him who was shortly to be his captive; and instead of praying for the Turkish emperor, he appoints prayers for himself, as another "author relates. And (as my author Joannes a Lent

goes on) he elected princes to govern the Jews in "their march towards the Holy Land, and to mini"ster justice to them when they should be possessed "of it. These princes were men well known in the "city of Smyrna at that time. The people now were pressing to see some miracle to confirm their faith, and to convince the Gentiles. Here the impostor "was puzzled, though any juggling trick would have "served their turn. But the credulous people supplied this defect. When Sabatai was before the "Cadi (or justice of Peace) some affirmed they saw a "pillar of fire between him and the Cadi; and after

some had affirmed it, others were ready to swear "it, and did swear it also; and this was presently "believed

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