This is the substance of their persuasion concerning his coming, person, office, and work. When he shall come; whether he shall live always, or die at a hundred years old; whether he shall have children, and if he have, whether they shall succeed him in his throne; whether all the Jews that are dead shall rise at his coming, and their Galgal, or rolling in the earth from all parts of the world
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250 FAITH OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF THE JEWS [EXERC. XI.
into the land of Canaan, shall then happen or no; whether the general resurrection shall not succeed immediately upon his reign, or at least within forty years after, or how long it will be to the end of the world,—they are not at all agreed. But this, as hath been declared, is the substance of their persuasion and expectation :—That he shall be a mere man, and that the deliverance which he shall effect shall be by mighty wars, wherein the Jews shall be always victorious; and that in the dominion and rule which they shall have over all nations, the third temple. shall be built, the law of Moses be observed by him and them, and the Noachical precepts be imposed on all others. As for any spiritual salvation from sin and the curse of the law, of justification and righteousness by him, or the procurement of grace and glory, they utterly reject all thoughts about them.
19. With these opinions many of them have mixed prodigious fancies, rendering their estate under their Messiah in this world not much inferior unto that which Mohammed hath promised unto his followers in another ; and some of them, on the other hand, endeavour to pare off what superfluities they can spare, and to render their folly as plausible as they are able. Wherefore, that it may appear what is the utmost height of their conceptions in this matter, and that which the most contemplative persons amongst them fix upon, I shall subjoin a description of him and his king- dom in the words of Maimonides, one of the wisest and soberest persons that hath been amongst them since their last fatal disper- sion. This man, therefore, in his exposition of the 10th chapter of Tractat. Sanhed., observing the fond and frivolous imaginations of their Talmudical masters about the Messiah, gives many rules and instructions about the right understanding of their sayings, to free them from open impieties and contradictions; and hereunto he subjoins, as he supposeth, the true notion of the Messiah and his kingdom, in the ensuing words: “ As to the days of the Messiah, they are the time when the kingdom shall be restored unto Israel, and they shall return unto Palestine. And this king shall be potent, the metropolis of whose kingdom shall be Zion; and his name shall be famous unto the uttermost parts of the earth. He shall be greater and richer than Solomon; and with him the nations shall make peace, and yield him obedience, because of his justice and the miracles that he shall perform. If any one shall rise against him, God shall give him up into his hand to be destroyed. All the Scripture declares his happiness, and the happiness we shall have by him. Howbeit, nothing in the nature of things shall be changed, only Israel shall have the kingdom; for so our wise men say ex- pressly, there is no difference between these days and the days of the Messiah, but only the subduing of the nations under us.” So,
SECT. 19-22. | CONCERNING THE MESSIAH. 251
indeed, says Rab. Samuel, and others of them: nm ohyn pa ps nysda ayy sds mwon nos. He goes on, “In those days vic- tuals shall be had at an easy rate, as if the earth brought forth cates and clothes.” And afterwards, “The Messiah shall die, and his son, and his son’s son, shall reign after him; but his kingdom shall endure long, and men shall live long in those days, so that some think his kingdom shall continue a thousand years. But the days of the Messiah are not so much to be desired that we may have store of corn and wealth, ride on horses, and drink wine with music, but for the society and conversation of good men, the know- ledge and righteousness of the king, and that then, without weari- _ someness, trouble, or constraint, the whole law of Moses shall be observed,”
20. This is the sum of the creed of the most sober part of the Jews concerning the Messiah, whom they look and long for;—if any are so sober as to embrace it; for the same author tells us that there were very few so minded, it may be scarce another in an age besides himself: generally, they look after nothing but rule, domi- nion, wealth, and pleasure. But he and they all own him as a temporal king, a mighty warrior, subduing the nations unto the Jews,—a Furius Camillus, or an Alexander, or a Cesar. Of redemp- tion from sin, death, and hell, of pardon of sin, justification, and
righteousness, of eternal salvation by him, they know, they believe nothing. Maimonides thinks, indeed, that his kingdom shall long continue; not like Manasseh of late, who supposeth that it might not abide above forty years, and those immediately preceding the day of judgment.