terpretation of this place, is taken from the event, or the coming of the desire of all nations, and the glory of the second house ensuing thereon, in these words, wins in coippai; and in this place I will give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.' From these words Abarbinel seeks to overthrow our exposition; by this place, saith he, is intended Jerusalem. Well, let that be granted, what will thence ensue? Why, saith he,

Behold from the • ; שנולד משיחם לא היה שלום ירושלם

day that the Messiah was born, there was no peace in Jerusalem, but wars, destruction and desolation.' We say then, that by peace, here, must be understood either outward, temporal, worldly peace, or spiritual peace between God and man, between Jews and Gentiles, in their joint communion in the same worship of God. If they say the former was intended, I desire to know when this promise was accomplished under the second temple? before the days of the Hasmoneans, the whole people was in perfect bondage and slavery, first to the Persians, then to the Grecians; and bondage is not peace, especially in the Hebrew dialect, wherein that word denotes an affluence of all good things. The rule of the Hasmoneans was wholly spent in bloody wars, and intestine divisions. Their power issued in the dominion of the Romans, and their vassals the Herodians. What signal peace they had in those days, they may learn from their own Joseph Ben Gorion. To say then, that this was the peace intended, is to say directly, that God promised what he never performed, which it is fit only for these men to do.

Besides, though God promised to give this peace at Jerusalem, that is amongst the Jews, yet he promised not to give it only to Jerusalem, or only to the Jews, but to all nations also, whom he would shake and stir up, to bring in this glory. Now what pretence of peace had the Jews under the second temple, in which all nations were concerned? I suppose they will not say they had any. Moreover, the peace promised, was that which was to be brought in by the Messiah. This Abarbinel grants; and thence seeks to strengthen his objection: for saith he, Then we shall have peace, rule and dominion according to the manifold promises given us unto that purpose.' I answer, those promises are of two sorts. Some allegorically express spiritual things, by words literally signifying things outward, and they are all of them fulfilled in and unto them that do believe. Others of them, that really intend outward peace and glory, are indeed made concerning the Jews to be fulfilled, not when the Messiah came to them, but when they shall come to the Messiah. At his coming unto them, they rejected him, and he rejected them; but when their blindness shall be taken away, and they shall return unto the Lord, all these promises shall have a

blessed accomplishment amongst them. But we have sufficiently proved that the principal work of the Messiah was to make peace between God and man by taking away sin that was the cause of their separation, distance and enmity. This then is the peace here promised. This God gave at Jerusalem, whilst the second temple was standing: "For he is our peace who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for to make in himself of twain, one new man, so making peace. And that he might reconcile both unto God, in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to them that were afar off, and to them that were nigh." Thus did Gid give peace at Jerusalem, both to the Jews and Gentiles, by him that was the desire of all nations; and so by this circumstance of the context also, is our interpretation fully confirmed.

§ 25. Although we have sufficiently confirmed our argument, and vindicated it from the exceptions of the Jewish masters; yet as it is most certain, that the constant faith of their church of old was, that the Messiah should come whilst that second temple was standing, and as the modern Jews have apostatized from this faith, and countenance themselves in their infidelity, by the miserable evasions before mentioned: I shall yet add farther strength unto it from a parallel testimony, and from their own confessions. The parallel place intended, is that of Malachi iii. 1. "Behold I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, even the angel or messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: Behold he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." The time future of his coming, is by Haggai said to be DVD, a little while; and Malachi answerably affirms, that he shall come on, suddenly, in the sense before declared. He who by Haggai is called

the desire of all nations, with respect unto the Gentiles, all desirable things being laid up in him, is by Malachi called

wpan Ons, with respect unto the Jews, the Lord whom ye seck; whose coming they looked for so long, and prayed for sq earnestly. And what Haggai expressed absolutely, shall come, afterwards intimating the respect his coming, should have unto the temple, Malachi sets down fully, ho, he shall come to his temple. Further to clear what it is, that in both these places is intended, he is called an 8, the angel of the covenant; God's messenger, who was to confirm and ratify the new covenant with them; that is, the Messiah. The Tar gum of Jonathan expresseth this on Jer. xxx. 21. closing the

ויתר בא מלכיהון,promise of the covenant with these words -and their king shall be anoint * מנהון ומשיחיהון מבניהון יתגלו

ed from among them, and their Messiah shall be revealed from amongst the midst of them;' He who was the desire of all nations, the Lord whom the Jews sought, the messenger by whom the new covenant was to be ratified; that is, the Lord the Messiah was to come, and he did come to that temple.

§ 26. And here the Jews are at an end of all shifts and evasions. It cannot be said that the Messiah is not here intended; yet Rashi would fain evade it; the Lord whom ye seek, that is own, the God of Judgment: because they had said before, Ch. ii. 17. Where is the God of Judgment? Vain man! these words, Ch. ii. 17. which he himself had but just before interpreted, to be the atheistical expression of wicked men questioning the judgment of God, are now to serve his turn, interpreted as to be expressive of the same earnest desire of seeking after the Lord, which is evidently meant by the words, the Lord whom ye seek, the angel of the covenant whom ye delight in; for both these are the same, as Aben Ezra acknowlegeth,

The האדון הוא הכבוד הוא מלאך הברית כי הטעם נפול

Lord he is the glory, and the angel of the covenant, the same things being intended under a double expression.' And the person to whom he refers is evident, from his interpreting the messenger to be sent before him, to be Messiah Ben Joseph, whom they make the forerunner of Messiah Ben David.

Kimchi interprets the angel to be sent before him, as the angel of God's presence from heaven, to lead the people out of their captivity, as of old he went before them in the wilderness when they came out of Egypt. But we are better taught who this messenger was, Mat. xi. 10. Mark i. 2. As for the Lord

הוא מלך המשיח הוא מלאך,they sought, he speaks plainly

an, This is the king the Messiah, and this the angel of the covenant.' He adds indeed the old story about Elijah, and his zeal for the covenant; whence he had the honour to preside at circumcision, to see the covenant observed, and may be thence called the angel of the covenant. But it is plain in the words, and confessed by Aben Ezra, that the Lord whom they sought, and the angel of the covenant, are the same. And as to these

he shall comme suddenly to his tem פתאם יבוא אל היכלו,words לפי שלא נגלה הקצ ולא ;ple, he adds in their explication נתבאר בספר דניאל אמר כי פתאום יבא שלא ידע אדם יום -Because the time of the end is not re • בואו טרם בואו שיבא

vealed nor unfolded in the book of Daniel.

It is said he shall come suddenly, because there is no man that knows the day of his coming before he cometh.' We grant that the precise day of his coming was not known before he came; but that the time of it was foretold, limited and unfolded in the book of Daniel, so far as the season would admit: and that all future expectation is there declared to be void, we shall immediately de

monstrate. At present we have proved, and find that they can not deny, but that he was to come unto the second temple, while it was yet standing.

§ 27. Once more, we may yet add the consent of others of their masters besides these expositors. Some testimonies out of their doctors are cited by others; I shall only name one or two of them in the Talmud itself, Tractat. Saned. cap. 11. the application of this place of Haggai unto the Messiah, is ascribed unto Rabbi Akiba; his words, as they report them, are,

A :,מעט כבוד אתן להם לישראל ליא אחר כך יבא המשיח

little glory will I give unto Israel, and then the Messiah shall come.' And this man is of so great repute among them, that Rabbi Eleazar affirms, that won, all the wise men of Israel were like a little garlic in comparison of that bald Rabbi.' This then is their own avowed tradition, and the other place of Malachi, concerning the angel of the covenant, is expounded of the Messiah by Rambam in, In the days,' saith he, of the Messiah, the children of Israel shall be restored unto their genealogies, by the Holy Ghost that shall rest upon him, as it is said, Behold, I send my messenger before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall come unto his tem ple.' We have then found out from the clear words of both these prophecies, and from the consent of the Jews themselves, who it is that is here promised in them, that he should come to his temple.

§ 28. This is the glory of the second house promised in Haggai. The end of the temple, and of all the glory of it, and all the worship performed in it, was to prefigure the promised seed, who was the true and only substantial glory of them all, and of the people to whom they were committed; for he was to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel. Therefore in all the worship of the temple, those who believed, and in the use of the ordinances of it, saw unto the end of their institution, did continually exercise faith on his coming, and earnestly desire the accomplishment of the promise concerning it. The great glory then of this temple could consist in nothing but this coming of the Lord whom they sought, the desire of all nations, unto it. Now that he should come whilst the temple stood, is here confirmed by this double prophetical testimony; and the temple was utterly and irreparably destroyed above 1600 years ago. It must be acknowledged then, that the Messiah is long since come, unless we will say, that the word of God is vain, and his promise of none effect.

29. The general objection of the Jews unto this argument, taken from the limitation of the time allotted unto the coming of the Messiah, we shall afterwards consider. In one word, that which they relieve themselves withal against the prediction

of Haggai and Malachi, that he should come unto the temple then built amongst them, is so truly ridiculous, that I shall not need to detain the reader with the consideration of it. They say the Messiah was born at the time determined, before the destruction of the second temple, but that he is kept hid in the sea, or in Paradise, or dwells at the gates of Rome among the lepers, waiting for a call from heaven to go and deliver the Jews. With such follies do men please themselves in the great concerns of the glory of God and of their own eternal welfare, when they are left destitute of the Spirit of light and truth, and are sealed up under the efficacy of their own blindness and unbelief. But of this we shall treat further in the consideration of their general answers to the whole argument in hand.