Secundò, Nondum impleta esse promissa omnia Israelitis data.[¹]
[¹] De Statu Mortuorum et Resurgentium Tractatus. Ajicitur Appendix de Futurà Judærum Restauratione.
Autore Thoma Burnetio, S. T. P. Editio Secunda. Londini:... M.DCC.XXXIII. (8º VIII. + 432 pp. [B. M.])
p. vi.: Editoris Præfatio.... Londini, ex Hospitio Lincolniensi, mense Oct. A.D. 1727: pp. 315–432: “Appendix de Futura Judæorum Restauratione. Autore Thoma Burnetio, S. T. P.”
Another anonymous theologian published in 1674, A Paper, shewing that the great ... Restauration of all Israel and Judah will be fulfilled ... and that the New Jerusalem is most probably then to be set up (Appendix xvii).
Among the Christian friends of Manasseh, the following distinguished persons may be named: Edward Nicholas, the author of An Apology for the Honorable Nation of the Jews, 1648 (Appendix xviii); the above-mentioned John Sadler, who petitioned Richard Cromwell (1626–1712) for a pension for Manasseh’s widow; Hugh Peters (1598–1660), one of Oliver Cromwell’s army chaplains, and a strong advocate for the unrestricted admission of the Jews (Appendix xix), Isaac Vossius, the scholarly Protestant ecclesiastic, with whom he was in correspondence.[¹] Vossius, at one time a member of the Court of Queen Christina of Sweden, was instrumental in bringing Manasseh to her notice.[²] Dr. Nathanael Homes (1599–1678), the famous Puritan divine and author,[³] and the great painter Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Ryn (1606(7)–1669). The most notable of his Jewish friends were, Isaac da Fonseca Aboab (1605–1693) (Appendix xx), Haham of the Sephardi community at Amsterdam, on whose initiative the Great Synagogue there was erected. Dr. Ephraim Hezekiah (ob. 1665) [de Dr. Joseph[⁴] (ob. 1641)] Bueno (Bonus), author of several liturgical works[⁵] and the subject of Rembrandt’s famous etching “The Jew Doctor”; Dr. Abraham Zacuto Lusitano (1580–1642) (Appendix xxi), one of the most celebrated physicians of his age; Jacob Jehudah Aryeh de Leon [Templo] (1603–1675), chiefly known as having designed models of the Tabernacle and Temple and was called “Templo” for that reason, which was assumed as a surname by his descendants. In anticipation of his visit to England, to exhibit the models before Charles II. (1630–1685) and his Court, he published in Amsterdam a pamphlet in English describing them (Appendix xxii): and H. H. R. Yahacob Sasportas (1610–1698), who accompanied Manasseh to England in 1655, was appointed in the month of Nisan, 1664, Haham of the Sephardi community in London. He was the author of one of the treatises in Sepher Pene Rabah edited by Manasseh Ben Israel ... Amsterdam 5388, and also wrote Sepher Ohel Ya’acob and Sepher Kizur Zizath Nobel Zebi, which were published together at Amsterdam 5497, against the adherents of Sabbatai Zebi (1626–1676). His stay here was of short duration—not quite two years. He left the country to escape the plague which was then raging, and subsequently, in 1681, became the Ecclesiastical Head of the Sephardi Jews in Amsterdam. It is noteworthy that two of these friends of Manasseh, Aboab and Sasportas, were particularly interested in the Messianic hopes, though from different points of view. Aboab, a Cabbalist, whose religious poetry is remarkable for chaste diction and wealth of imagination, was supposed to be a secret Sabbatian, while Sasportas, sober-minded and a strict Talmudist, was strongly opposed to the mystical tendencies of pseudo-Messianism, and hoped for the restoration in the traditional way.
[¹] Two of these letters have been published by Heer J. M. Hillesum, in his article “Menasseh Ben Israel,” in the Amsterdamsch Jaarboekje, 1899, pp. 27–56.
[²] Manasseh in her honour published in Portuguese:—Oracion Panegirica a su Magestad la Reyna de Suedia. Amsterdam, 1642. 4to.
[³] The Resurrection—Revealed Raised Above Doubts & Difficulties. In Ten Exercitations.... By Doctor Nathanael Homes.... London, Printed for the Author, A.D. 1661.
[⁴] Wrote one of the “Aprovaciones” for “La primera parte del Conciliador enel Pentateucho, 1632.” “Del excelente Señor Doctor Joseph Bueno, Philosopho, y Medico preclaro.”: and also a Soneto which appears on the ninth introductory leaf of “Menasseh Ben Israel De La Resvrreccion De Los Mvertos, ... En Amsterdam, En casa, y à costa del Autor. Ano. 5396. de la criacion del mundo.” (12mo. 12 ll. + 187 pp. + 1 l. [I. S.]