And this was another way whereby God instructed the church of old in the mystery of the person of the Messiah who was promised unto them.
EXERCITATION XI.
FAITH OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF THE JEWS CONCERNING THE MESSIAH.
1. Messiah promised of off. 2. Faith of the ancient church of the Jews con- cerning him. 3. State of the Jews at his coming—Expectations of it ex- posed to the seducements of impostors. 4. Faith of their forefathers lost among them—Sadducees expected a Messiah—On what grounds—Consist- ency of their principles. 5. True Messiah rejected by them—General reason thereof. 6. Story of Bar-Cosba, and Rabbi Akiba—Miracles to be wrought by the Messiah. 7. State of the Jews after the days of Bar-Cosba—Faith of their forefathers utterly renounced. 8. Opinion of Hillel, denying any Messiah to come—Occasion of it—Their judgment of him. 9. The things concern-
234 FAITH OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF THE JEWS [EXERC. XL
ing the Messiah mysterious—Seeming inconsistencies in the prophecies and descriptions of him. 10. Reconciled in the gospel—That rejected by the Jews. 11. Their imagination of two Messiahs, Messiah Ben Joseph and Messiah Ben David—Story of Messiah Ben Joseph. 12. Of Armillus. 13, Rise and occasion of the fable concerning him—Jews acquainted with the Book of Revelation. 14. Their story of the building of Rome—jy>p sas, what. 15, Death of Ben Joseph. 16,17. The fable concerning him disproved — The same with that of the Romanists concerning Antichrist. 18. Of Messiah Ben David—The faith and expectation of the Jews concerning him. 19. The © opinion of Maimonides. 20. Sum of the Judaical creed. 21. Ground and reason of their present unbelief. 22. Ignorance of their miserable condition by nature. 23. Ignorance of acceptable righteousness; 24. And of the judgment of God concerning sin; 25, 26. Also of the nature and end of the law. 27. Corrupt affections. 28. Envy against the Gentiles, because of the privileges claimed by them ; 29. And their oppressions. 30. Judaical faith concerning the Messiah. 31. The folly of it. 32. Of the promises of the Old Testament. 33-35. Threefold interpretation of them. 36. Conclusion.
1. WE have proved the promise of a person to be born and anointed unto the work of relieving mankind from sin and misery, and to bring them back unto God; and what kind of person he was to be we have also showed. It remains that we consider what was the faith of the ancient church of the Jews concerning him; as also what are, and have been for many generations, the apprehen- sions and expectations of the same people about the same object of faith, with the occasions and reasons of their present infidelity and obstinacy.
2. For the faith of the ancient church, it hath been already sufii- ciently discoursed. What God revealed, that they believed. They of old saw not, indeed, clearly and fully into the sense of the pro- mises,—as to the way and manner whereby God would work out and accomplish the mercy and grace which they lived and died in the faith and hope of; but this they knew, that God would, in his ap- pointed time, in and by the natwre of man, in one to be born of the seed of Abraham and house of David, cause atonement to be made for sin, bring in everlasting righteousness, and work out the salvation of his elect. This was abundantly revealed, this they steadfastly believed, and in the faith hereof “ obtained a good re- port,” or testimony from God himself that they “pleased him,” in- herited the promises, and were made partakers of life eternal; and further at present we need not inquire into their light and appre- hensions, seeing they must be considered in our Exposition of the Kpistle itself, which now way is making unto,
3. For the Jews, as divested of the privileges of their forefathers, we may consider them with reference unto two principal seasons ;— first, From the time of the actual exhibition of the promised Seed, or the coming of the Messiah, to the time of the composition of their Mishnah and Talmuds that ensued thereon ; secondly, From
SECT. 1-4. | CONCERNING THE MESSIAH. 235
thence unto this present day; and in both these seasons we may consider the prevailing opinions amongst them concerning the pro- mised Messiah, his coming, and the work that he hath to do. That, towards the close of prophecy in the church of old, the hearts and spirits of men were intently fixed on a desire and expectation of the coming of the Messiah, the last of the prophets clearly testifies: Mal, iii. 1, “The Lord, whom ye are seeking, the Angel of the cove- nant, whom ye are desiring, shall come suddenly.” As the time of his coming drew nigh, this expectation was increased and height- ened; so that they continually looked out after him, as if he were to enter amongst them every moment. No sooner did any one make an appearance of something extraordinary, but instantly they were ready to say, “Is not this the Messiah?” This gave advantage unto sundry seditious impostors, as Theudas and Judas of Galilee, to deceive many of them unto their ruin. John the Baptist also they inquired about, John i. 19, 20; yea, and they had divulged such a report of their expectations, with the predictions and prophecies that they were built upon, that the whole world took notice of it, as hath been elsewhere manifested out of the best Roman histo- rians. This was the state of the Judaical church not long before the destruction of the second temple. And so fixed were they in their resolutions that he was to come about that season, that during the last desolating siege of the city, they looked every day when he would come and save them. 4, But notwithstanding this earnest desire and expectation, they had utterly lost the light and faith of their forefathers about the “nature, work, and office, of the promised Messiah; for, being grown carnal, and minding only things earthly and present, they utterly over- looked the spiritual genealogy of the Seed of the woman from the first promise, and, wresting all prophecies and predictions to their am- bitious, covetous, corrupt inclinations and interests, they fancied him unto themselves as one that was to deliver them from all outward trouble, and to satisfy them with the glory and desirable things of this world, without respect to sin and the curse, or deliverance from them; and hence the Sadducees, who denied the immortality of the soul, and consequently all rewards and punishments in another world, yet no less desired and expected the coming of the Messiah than the Pharisees and their disciples, And the truth is, they had brought their principles unto a better consistency than the others had done; for if the promised Messiah was only to procure them the “good things” of this world, and that whilst they lived in it, it was in vain to look for another world to come, and the blessings thereof. To look for eternal life, and yet to confine the promise of the Seed to the things of this life only, there was neither ground nor reason; so that the Pharisees laid down the principle which the Sadducees