9. Our apostle tells us, 1 Tim, iii.16, that “without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh, justified
240 FAITH OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF THE JEWS [EXERC. XI.
in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” All things which concern the Messiah, his person, office, and work, are exceedingly mysterious, as containing the principal effect of the eternal wisdom and goodness of God, and the sacred depths of the counsel of his will. Hence the things spoken of him in the Old Testament are, unto carnal reason, full of seeming inconsistencies. As, for instance, it is promised of him that he should be the seed of the woman, Gen. ii. 15; of the seed of Abraham, chap. xxii. 18; and of the posterity of David: and yet that his name should be, “ The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace,” Isa. ix.6; and of him itis said, “Thy ~ throne, O God, is for ever and ever,” Ps. xlv. 6; and we are told that he is “The Lor our righteousness,” Jer. xxiii. 6; that he is “ The Lorp of hosts,” Zech. ii. 8. Moreover, it is declared that he shall sit upon his throne for ever, and reign, whilst his enemies are made his foot- stool, Isa. ix. 7, Ps. ii. 6-8, xlv. 6, 7, cx. 1: and yet that he shall be cut off, Dan. ix. 26; that he shall be pierced in his hands and feet, Ps. xxii. 16; slain by the sword of God, Zech. xiii. 7; and that in his death he shall have his grave made among the wicked and with the rich, Isa. iii, 9. Also, that he shall come with great glory, and with the clouds of heaven, Dan. vii. 13, 14; and that he shall come lowly, riding on an ass, and on a colt the foal of an ass, Zech. ix. 9: that the soul of the Lord was well pleased with him, and always de- lighted in him, Isa. xlii. 1; and yet that it pleased him to bruise him and put him to grief, chap. lili. 10; to forsake him, Ps. xxi. 1: that he was to be a king and a priest upon his throne, Zech. vi. 13; and yet these things were inconsistent, the kingdom being annexed unto the family of David, and the priesthood to the pos- terity of Aaron, by divine constitution: that he should be honoured and worshipped of all nations, Ps. xlv. 12, Ixxii. 10, 11, 15; and yet that he should be rejected and despised, as one altogether unde- sirable, Isa. lili. 3: that he should stand and feed (or rule) in the name and majesty of God, Micah v. 4; and yet complain, “I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people,” Ps. xxi. 6. All which, with sundry others of the like nature con- cerning his office and work, are clearly reconciled in the New Testa- ment, and their concurrence in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ openly and fully declared.
10. At the time of his coming, the Jews were generally as ignorant of these things as Nicodemus was of regeneration,—they knew not how they might be; and therefore, whenever our Saviour intimated unto them his divine nature, they were filled with rage and mad- ness, John viii. 58, 59. They would stone him, because, being a man, he declared himself to be God, chap. x. 30-33; and yet, when he proved it to them that the Messiah was to be so, inasmuch
SECT, 10, 11.] CONCERNING THE MESSIAH. 241
as that being David’s son, yet “David in Spirit called him Lord,” they were confounded, not being “able to answer him a word,” Matt. xxii.41—46,. When he told them that “the Son of man,” the Messiah, must be “lifted up,” that is, in his death on the cross, they objected unto him out of the law that “ Christ abideth for ever,’ John xii. 34; and they knew not how to reconcile these things. Hence some of his own disciples thought he could not be the Messiah when they saw that he died, Luke xxiv. 20, 21; and the best of them seemed to have expected an outward, temporal kingdom. But of all these difficulties, as was said, and seeming inconsistencies, there is a blessed reconciliation revealed in the gospel, and an application made of them to the person of the Lord Jesus, the office he bare, and the work that he accomplished. This the Jews refusing by unbelief, they have invented many fond and lewd imaginations to free them- selves from these difficulties and entanglements. Some things they deny to be spoken concerning the Messiah, some things they wrest and pervert to their own apprehensions, and somewhat they allow and look for that is truly promised.
11. First, For his person and the things spoken concerning it, they apply thereunto the principal engine which they have invented for their relief; for whereas the Scripture hath declared unto us such a Messiah as should have the natures of God and man in one person, which person should in the nature of man suffer, and die, and rise, for spiritual ends and purposes, they have rejected the divine nature of this person, and split that which remaineth into two persons; to the one whereof they assign one part of his work, as to sorrow, suffer, and die; to the other another part, namely, to con- quer, rule, and reign, according unto their carnal apprehensions of these things. They have, I say, feigned two Messiahs, between whom they have distributed the whole work of him that is promised, ac- cording unto their understanding of it; and one of these is to come, as they say, before the other, to prepare his way for him.