fiah, as a great conqueror, was to fubdue the nations, proceeds only from the fenfe of the oppreffion they have been, and ftill are, under, which makes them so earnestly defire a temporal deliverance from the power of the Gentiles, by means of the Meffiah: and the pompous expreffions of fome of the Prophets have ftrengthened this belief in them; though they cannot deny but that the fame prophetical paffages do imply that the Meffiah was to fubject the Gentiles by the way of inftruction.

CHA P. XXIV.

That the Jews were to be rejected in the Time of the MESSIAH.

HERE are three things which make this particular very confiderable.

The first is, That it feems altogether oppofite to the defign of God, who was entered into covenant with the Jezus, excluding all other nations of the earth.

The fecond is, That nothing ever was a greater fcandal to the Jews than the thoughts of a poffibility that God fhould ever caft off their nation.

The third is, That the rejection of the Jews feemed lefs poffible in the time of the Meffiah, than at any other time; the Meffiah being, according to their perfuafion, to procure the falvation of the Jews in the fut place, and before other. nations were made partakers of those bleflings which he brought along with him.

And it was upon this account that God hath forgot nothing which might make thofe oracles that relate to the rejection of the Jews, in the time of the Meffiah, very fenfible.

The chief privileges which made the Jews confider themselves as God's peculiar people, were these.

1. God himself was in a peculiar manner their king and Sovereign; which gave Jofephus occañon to call their state a theocracy.

2. Their religious fervice did wholly depend upon God, who had inftituted their order of priesthood.

3. God had placed them in a country by themfeives, and separated them from all other nations.

4. God had given them the Urim and Thummim, which gave them an infallible refolution in all important cafes happening to their state; which was an evident mark of the Divine prefence and direction.

5. God gave them particular marks of his bleffing, the extraordinary fruitfulnefs which continually ufhered in their fabbatical year; the fecurity which they enjoyed during their three folemn feafts; and above all, the deliverers which he from time to time railed up for them, their fourteen judges and kings.

And

And God alfo threatened them with evils oppofite to thefe bleffings; and all this is denounced against them ftep by step.

1. He declares that he would no longer be their God.

2. That he would abolish and reject their order of priesthood, which was accordingly executed by degrees.

3. That he would turn them out of their own country, without recovery.

4. That they fhould have no more Prophets or revelations.

5. That he would take away from them all the marks of his protection. The paffages expreffing thefe feveral particulars are here fubjoined, which may be eafily ranged under the foregoing heads, that we may understand the better that God hath plainly foretold the rejection of the Jews at the time of the Meffiah.

1. Mofes then threatens them with a terrible defolation, Deut. xxviii. verf. 28, 29. The Lord fhall fmite thee with madness and blindness, and aftonifhment of heart: and thou shalt grope at noon day, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not profper in thy ways, and thou shalt be only oppreffed and fpoiled evermore, and no man fhall fave thee.

Manaffeh acknowledges that God in this paffage foretels, not only their firft defolation under Nebuchadnezzar, but alfo that which happened under Titus Vefpafian; the eagle mentioned at the 49th verfe of that chapter, being not only applicable to Nebuchadnezzar, whom Ezekiel, chap. xvii. reprefents under that notion, but more particularly to the Roman emperor Titus, whofe eagles gave a literal accomplishment to that prophecy.

This makes it evident, that at the fame time when God threatens them with their firft defolation, he alfo denounces to them the laft; and that confequently we may apply thofe paffages to the fecond rejection of the Jews, which were fpoken of the first.

2. Hofea exprefleth the fame in his firft, fecond, and third chapters, where he particularly foretels their being deprived of the royal dignity, priesthood, and prophecy.

3. Ifaiah fpeaks to the fame purpofe in his firft, fecond, and fifth chapters; as alfo chap. xxviii, lxii, 1, and Ixvi. and in his xxvth chapter he speaks as if no restoration was to be expected.

4. Amos reprefents the fame thing, chap. v. verf. 16, 17, and 21, 22. Therefore the Lord, the God of Hofts, the Lord faith thus: Wailing fhall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the high-ways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and fuch as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. And in all vineyards fhall be wailing; for I will pass through thee, faith the Lord. I hate, I defpije your feaft-days; and I will not fmell in your falemn affemblies: though ye offer me burnt-offerings and your meat-offerings, I will not accept them, neither will I regard the peace-offering of your fat beafts. Where he hints that their defolation fhall be without recovery.

5. Jeremiah is very exprefs in chap. v, vi, and x. verse 11. where he declares that their deftruction fhould be without remedy; as alfo chap. xii, and xxxi.

6. Daniel follows their fteps, chap. ix. verf. 25, 26, 27. where he directly points at the deftruction of Jerufalem and the temple. The words are thefe: Know therefore and understand, that from the goir

- of the commandment, to restore and build Jerufalem, unto the Meffiab the Prince, fhall be feven weeks; and threefcore and two weeks the streets shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after the threefcore and two weeks fhall MESSIAH be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the Prince that shall come, fhall deftroy the city and the fanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood; and unto the end of the war defolations are determined. It is worth our obferving, that Jofephus (o) the hiftorian, a little after the deftruction of Jerufalem, acknowledges that this prophecy of Daniel did exprefsly foretel the ruin of the temple of Jerufalem, and of the Jewish government, by the arms of the Roman empire, which himself was an eye-witnefs of.

S...

7. Zechariah fpeaks after the fame manner, chap. xi. verf. 9. Then faid I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the reft eat, every one the flesh of another.

8. And Malachi follows thefe common ideas, chap. i. verf. 10 and 11. Who is there among you that shuts the doors for nought? Neither do ye kindie fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleafure in you, faith the Lord of Hofts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. For from the rifing of the fun, even unto the going down of the fame, my name fhall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incenfe fhall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathen, faith the Lord of Hofts.

I cannot conceive how any that confider the fucceffion of thefe ideas, 'fo interwoven one with another, can have the leaft doubt whether the Jews were to be rejected at the coming of the Meffiah, or no; especially fince the Apoftles, and St. Paul in particular, have made it appear, that the Prophets fo plainly did foretel this truth.

Of the Time which fucceeded the Publishing of these Prophecies, till the Coming of the MESSIAH.

THE

HUS we have feen an abridgment of the most remarkable oracles uttered, either by God himself, or by Prophets, whom he made ufe of to declare his defigns. I might eafily have alledged a far greater number; but I chofe rather to content myself with thefe, to avoid the confufion which the multiplicity of citations is apt to occafion. And I queftion not but these I have mentioned, will fuffice to give us an idea of God's promife concerning the Meffiah fufficiently great, and enable us to make a judgment, whether that which the Chriftians declare to have been the accomplishment of it, be fo indeed.

In the mean time, for the further clearing of this matter, I defire the reader to make fome reflexions on the whole matter, which feem to me to deserve a serious attention.

(0) Antiq. Lib. x.

The

The first is, That God hath by degrees put an end to thofe divifions that were between fome other nations and the Jews, founded on their hopes of the promise of the Meffiah, as the time of its accomplishment drew near.

We hear little now of the enmity of the Ishmaelites against the Jews: God having placed them in the defert of Paran, they have indeed continued there in a manner invincible, but also without any great communication with their neighbour nations.

As for the Moabite, and Ammonites, they had their kingdoms on the borders of the Holy Land, and continued there till the time of Nebuchadnezzar, fince which we find little mention made of them, as being in a manner wholly confounded with other nations; only we meet with fome few memorials of the Ammonites, whofe pretenfions to that promise were the weaker of the two, as being the pofterity of Lot's younger daughter.

It is worth our obferving, That most of the prophecies of David, as well as of the following Prophets, which thunder forth fuch terrible denunciations againft the pride of those people, threatening them with the curfe of God and final deftruction, feem to have an eye to the old quarrel and jealousy; their ftate quarrel which happened afterwards, fucceeding to this their first averfion, and hatred of the Jews.

The ftate and government of the Edomites, as well as their jealousy against Ifrael, continued till after Cyrus, who granted them the liberty of returning to their own country, as well as to the Jews who had been car ried away captives with them by Nebuchadnezzar; but contrary to the hope they had of being re-stablished to their former eftate, we find, that according to the prophecy of Malachi, they continued in bondage to their neighbours, yea to the Jews themselves, until Herod the Edomite, poffeffing himfelf of the throne of Judea, was probably flattered by thofe of his own nation, and by fome Jews alfo, into a belief of his being the promised Meffiah.

We must alfo take notice, That the Divine Providence feems to have continued this people fo long, on purpose that the fpirit of jealousy which was between them and the Jews, might preferve the notion of the promifed Meffiah more fresh and lively, and to engage men to a more attentive confideration of the prophecies concerning the fame; and that God, by confounding them afterwards with other nations, intended wholly to take away their pretenfions; the fervice which before they rendered to the Jewish church, being no longer needful, after fo clear and diftinct a revelation.

This reflexion will be owned to be more than a conjecture, if we confider God's dealing with the ten tribes: God fuffers them to be carried away captives by Salmanaffar, leaving only the tribes of Judah, Levi, and Benjamin, to be afterwards the depofitaries of the Divine oracles.

The fecond is, That as it appears that God hath kept some distance of time in his revelation, that the authority of the Prophets might be fully and firmly eftablished, which, as I have obferved, was done by the accomplishment of fome prophecies, refpecting fome particular matters of fact near at hand; fo it pleafed God, for above four hundred years, to leave the Jews without the light of prophecy; because that which he

had

had given them till Malachi's time, 'was fufficient to make them know the Meffiah, when he fhould appear in the world.

The third is, That this ceffation of the gifts of prophecy among the Jews did serve to increase their defires for the coming of the Meffiah, in whole days thofe gifts (which were the peculiar glory of their nation) were to be restored in far greater abundance than had ever been granted to them before.

A fourth reflexion, which is well worth our attentive confideration, is, That God fo ordered it in his providence, that all the books of the Old Teftamant were tranflated into the Greek about one hundred years after Malachi, that they might be communicated to all nations; the Greek tongue being at that time, and indeed ever fince the reign of Alexander the Great, a language the moft known and generally spoken in the world, he having with his power carried it into the South and Eaft. It is natural to conceive, that the Divine Providence hereby defigned thefe three things:

- First, To establish and confirm the authority of thofe Divine oracles, by delivering them into the hands of the heathen, by the public authority of the Jewish nation, at the defire of a king of Egypt.

Secondly, To prevent cavilling about the explication of thofe oracles. Thus, for instance, we fce there is no place left to difpute the tranflation of that prophecy, Behold, a virgin fhall conceive, feeing the LXX interpreters, who were Jews, have rendered it fo them felves, fome ages before any contests were started about it between the Jews and Chriflians. The third was, To prepare and difpofe the heathen for receiving the religion of the Meffiah.

And indeed we may eafily comprehend, 1. That it was neceflary that the prophetical writings fhould be communicated to the heathen, in order to their ready fubmitting themfolves to the authority of the Meffiah, whom they knew by thofe characters which had been given of him. 2. That it was not fitting that the heathen fhould wholly depend on the authority of the Jews, forafmuch as the fame Divine oracles do exprefsly affirm, that the Meffiah was to be rejected by the greatest part

of them.

.1 fhall conclude thefe reflexions with a fhort view of the flate of the commonwealth and religion of the Jews, fince the laft of the Prophets. First, One finds that this government fubfifted as diftinct from all other nations of the earth, as ever it did before: we fee the honour wherewith Alexander the Great treated their high-prieft; and that, when he was appointed arbitrator of the difference between them and the Samaritans, he determined the matter in favour of the Jews.

One fees that Alexander preferved them in the enjoyment of their rights and liberties, as they enjoyed them under the kings of Perfia; and in particular exempted them from paying any tribute every feventh year, because then they did not fow their ground, and confequently could not reap.

And if we find that Ptolemy took Jerufalem on a fabbath day, the Jews making confcience of defending themfelves, becaufe the law required their ceafing from all work; from whence Agatharcides, an heathen author, takes occafion to blame their law; if we find him carrying a great

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