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righteousness by the covenant of the Messiah; they take it upon themselves to be righteous, that so he may make that covenant with them.

$ 24. Lastly, If the coming of the Messiah depend on the righteousness and repentance of the Jews, it is not only possible, but very probable that he may never come. They conceive that the world shall not continue above six thousand years. Of this space, they do not suppose that there are more than five hundred years remaining; the time which is past since the expiration of the days determined for the coming of the Messiah, is at least sixteen hundred years: seeing that they have not repented all this while, what assurance have we, nay what hope may we entertain of their repentance, within the four or five hundred years that remain. Greater calls to repentance from God, greater motives from themselves and from others, they are not likely to meet with. And what ground have we to expect, that they who (by their own confessions) have withstood all these calls without any good fruit, will ever become any better. Upon this supposition then, it would be very probable, that the Messiah should never come. Nothing can be replied to all this reasoning, but that God will either at length effectually by his grace give them that repentance which they make necessary for his coming, or that he will send him at last, whether they repent or not. But if either of these are expected, then I would ask, what reason can be imagined, why God should so deal at a future season, concerning which he has made no promise that the Messiah should come therein, and not deal so at the time concerning which he had so often promised and foretold, that he should come therein.

VOL. I.

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EXERCITATION XVII. .

Proving JEsus of Nazareth to be the only true and promised Messiah.

1. Jesus whom Paul preached, the true Messiah. 2, 3. First argument from the time of his coming. Foundation of this argument unquestionable. 4. Coming of Jesus at the time appointed, proved by Scripture, record, and catholic tradition. § 5. By the testimonies of heathen wri. ters. 6. By the confession of the Talmudical Jews. Jesus Christ intended by them, in their story of Jesus the son of Pandira and Stada. 7. No other came at that season, by them owned. 8. Force of this argument. 9. Characteristical notes of the Messiah given out in the Old Testament. § 10. His family, stock or lineage, confined unto the posterity of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David. §11. Our Lord Jesus of the posterity of Abraham, and tribe of Judah, also of the family of David. Testimonies of the evangelists vindicated. § 12. Jewish excep tions in general answered. §13. In particular, the genealogy not proved; answered. 14. The genealogy of Matthew declared, § 15, 16. and of Luke. 17. The place of the birth of the Messiah, Bethlehem, Micah v. 2. §18. Circumstances enforcing this consideration. § 19. The evangelist's citation of the words of the prophet vindicated. 20. The Messiah to be born of a virgin, Isa. vii. 10, 11. and Matt. i. 21, 22. § 21. Jews convinced that Jesus was born of a virgin. 22. Jewish excep tions to the application of this prophecy. Their weight. § 23. The answer of some to them; unsafe, needless. § 24, 25. True sense of the words. Exceptions answered. § 26-28. The signification and use of Greatness of the sign promised. § 29, 30. No other Virgin and Son designed but Jesus Christ and his mother. The propi.ecy cleared in this instance. § 31. In what sense the birth of the Messiah was a sign of present deliverance. § 32, 33. Remaining objections answered. § 34. Other characters of the Messiah. 35. He was to be a prophet, Deut. xviii. 19. a prophet like unto Moses. Expected by the Jews. § 36. Jesus Christ a prophet. That prophet. § 37. The nature of the doctrine which he taught. Its perfection. § 38. The works of the Messiah revealed only in the gospel of Christ. 39. Also the nature and end of Mosaic institutions. $40. Threatenings unto the disobedient, fallen upon the Jews. 41. Sufferings are another character of the Messiah. 42. His passion foretold, Psal. xxii. The true Messiah therein intended. Expositions of Kimchi and others confuted. 43. Sufferings peculiar unto the Messiah. § 44. The Psalm exactly fulfilled in Jesus Christ. 45. Objections of the Jews from the principles of Christians, answered. 46. Isa. liii. Prophecy of the suffering of the Messiah. § 47. Consent of the ancient Jews. Targum, Bereshith Rabba, Talmud, Ashech. 48-53. Invalidity of exceptions of latter rabbins. Application to the Lord Jesus vindicated. § 54. Other testimonies concerning the sufferings of the Messiah. 55. Jewish traditions to the same purpose. 56. Other arguments proving Jesus to be the true Messiah. 57. Mi

racles. 58. The nature of them, § 59. wrought by Christ, proved. .. 60. Testimony of the gospel. 61. Notoriety of tradition. §62. Miracles of Christ compared with those of Moses. 63. Excelling them in number; § 64. in manner of their being wrought; § 65. in their nature; § 66. in his giving power to others to effect them ; § 67. in his resurrection from the dead; § 68. continuance of them in the world. § 69. Sum of the argument. § 70, 71. Conviction of the Jews evinced. § 72,73. Causes of the miracles of Christ assigned by them. Magical art, retorted, removed. § 74. The name of God. § 75. Testimonies of his disciples. § 76. Success of the doctrine of Jesus. Last argument.

$1. THE

HE third branch of that great supposition and fundamental article of faith, on which the apostle builds his arguments and reasonings with the Hebrews is, that Jesus whom he preached was the true and only promised Messiah, who came forth from God for the accomplishment of his work; at the time which had been determined and foretold. The confirmation of this foundation of our faith, and profession, is that which now in the third place we must engage in. This is a subject on which I could insist at large, with much satisfaction to myself, nor have I just cause to fear, that the matter treated of, would be irksome to any Christian reader. But we must have respect unto our present design, for it is not absolutely and of set purpose, that we handle these things, but merely with reference to that further end of opening the springs of the apostle's divine reasonings in this epistle, and therefore we must contract as much as may be the arguments that we have to plead in this case. And yet neither can this be so done, but that some continuance of discourse will be unavoidably necessary. And the course which we shall adopt, is the same which we have followed in our foregoing demonstrations of the promise of the Messiah, and of his coming. Our arguments are first to be produced, and vindicated from the particular objections of the Jews, and then their opposition to our thesis in general, is to be removed, referring an answer to their special objections unto another dissertation.

§ 2. That our present discourse may follow the foregoing in a natural order, our first argument shall be taken from that which is proved, and confirmed therein; namely, the time limited and determined for the coming of the Messiah. Two ways there are, whereby the time fore-appointed of God for the coming of the Messiah, is signified and made known. First, By certain Txungia, or evident tokens, taken from the Judaical church, with the state and condition of the whole people of the Jews. This we have insisted on from Gen. xlix. 10. Hag. ii. 8. Mal. iii. 1, 2. Secondly, By a computation of the time itself as to its duration, from a certain fixed date unto its expiration. This way we have unfolded and vindicated at large,

from Dan. ix. 24-27. And although we have evidenced the truth and exactness of the computation insisted on by us, as far as any chronological accounts of times past are capable of being demonstrated, yet we have also manifested, that our argument depends not on the precise bounding of the time limited; but lying what, is of equal force, however the computation be calculated, the whole time limited being undeniably expired before, or at the destruction of the city and temple. Hence is the foundation of our first argument. Before or at the expiration of that time the promised Messiah was to come. or at that time, (as denoted and described by the general TBefore, ça, or evident tokens before mentioned, and limited by the computation insisted on,) Jesus came, and no other that the Jews can or do pretend to have been the Messiah; and therefore he was the true promised Messiah.

§3. The foundation of this argument, namely, that the Messiah was to come within the time limited and foretold, cannot be shaken, without calling in question the truth of all promises and predictions in the Old Testament, and consequently the faithfulness and power of God. The great design of the Old Testament is to reveal the Messiah, the Saviour of the world. This design is manifested from the first, and it is prosecuted through the whole record. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit that enlivens the whole doctrine and history of it. bond of union, and it is the centre in which all the parts of it It is the do meet, and without which they would be loose, scattered and deformed heaps. Without an apprehension of this design, and faith therein, not a letter of it can be understood, nor can a rational man discover any important excellency in it. Him it promiseth, him it typifieth, him it teacheth, and prophesieth about; him it calls men to desire and expect. When it hath done this in several places, it expressly limits, foretels and declares, the time wherein he shall be sent and exhibited. If there be a failure herein, (seeing it is done to give evidence to all other things that are spoken concerning him, by which they are to be tried, and to stand or fall, as they receive support or are discountenanced by it) to what end should any man trouble himself, about that which is cast, as a fancy and empty imagination, by its own verdict? If then the Messiah came not within the time limited, all expectation from the Scriptures of the Old Testament must come to nought; which those, with whom at present we contend, will not grant.

Nor can the Jews on such a supposition, in any measure defend the truth of the Scriptures against an infidel. For unto his inquiry, where is the promised Messiah? if they shall plead their usual pretences, it is easy for him to reply, that these things being no where mentioned, nor intimated in the books

themselves, they are only such subterfuges as any man may palliate the most open untruths withal. And indeed, the ridiculous figment of his being born at the time appointed, but kept hid to this day, they know not where, is not to be pleaded, when they deal with men not bereft of their senses, or judicially blinded by God. For besides, that the whole of it is a childish fiction, inconsistent with the nature and being of their Messiah, whom they make to be a mere man subject to mortality, in his whole person like all the other sons of Adam, it suits not at all unto the difficulty intended to be removed by it. For it is not his being born only, but also his accomplishment of his work and office at the time determined, which is foretold, Nor is there any one jot more of probability in their other pretence, about their own sins and unworthiness. For, as we have declared, this is nothing but in plain terms to assert, that God hath violated his faith and promise; and that in a matter, wherein the great concern of his own glory, and the welfare of all mankind doth consist, on account of their miscarriages, which as they either cannot, or will not remedy, so he himself hath not, (though he might have so done) provided any relief against them. This then stands upon equal evidence with the whole authority of the Old Testament, namely, that the promised Messiah was to come within the time prefixed for his coming, and foretold.

We ask them then, If Jesus of Nazareth be not the Messiah, where is he? or who is he that came in answer to the prophecies insisted on? Two things then remain to be proved. First, That our Lord Jesus Christ came, lived, and died within the time limited for the coming of the Messiah. Secondly, That no other came within that season, that either pretended with any colour of probability unto that dignity, or was ever as such owned or esteemed by the Jews themselves.

§ 4. First then, that Jesus came and lived in the time fixed for the coming of the Messiah, that is, some short time before the departure of sceptre and scribe from Judab, the ceasing of the daily sacrifice, and the final desolation of the second temple, we have all the evidence, that a matter of fact which happened so long ago is capable of, evidence as good as that the world was of old created by God. The histories of the church are express in affirming that he was born during the reign of Augustus Caesar, and in the latter end of that of Herod over Judea, when Cyrenius was governor over Syria; that he lived unto the time when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea under Tiberius, about thirty-six or thirty-seven years before the destruction of the Jewish nation, city and temple by Titus. This the histories written by divine inspiration, and committed unto the care of the church, expressly affirm; neither have the Jews any thing to object against the truth of the relation, whatever may bc

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