And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it [is] a stiffnecked people:
Ver. 9. A stiffnecked people.] And so they are still to this very day. Jerome a complains that in his time they thrice a day curse a Christ in their synagogue, and closed up their prayers with Maledic, Domine, Nazaraeis. They are thought to advise most of that mischief which the Turk puts in execution against Christians. They counterfeit Christianity in Portugal even to the degree of priesthood, and think they may do it, either for the avoiding of danger, or increasing their substance. There are very few of them that turn Christians in good earnest: Adeo in cordibus eorum radices fixit pertinacitas. b So stubborn they are to this day, and stiffnecked, their necks are wholly possessed with an iron sinew.
a Jerome, in Isa., lib. xii. cap. 49, tom. 5, et lib. xiv. cap. 42.
b Rivet., Jesuita Vapul., 322.