29. Again, their envy against the Gentiles is greatly increased and excited by the oppressions and sufferings from them which they undergo. This adds hatred and desire of revenge unto it; which render it impotent and unruly. I speak not now of their present and past sufferings from Christians, which in many places have been unrighteous and inhuman, and so undoubtedly a great occasion of hardening them in their obstinacy; but of their long-
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258 FAITH OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF THE JEWS [EXERC. XI.
continued oppressions under the power of the Gentiles in general. | Having been greatly harassed and wasted by them in most ages, and having a Deliverer promised unto them, they are strongly in- clined to fancy such a deliverance as, being peculiarly theirs, should enable them to avenge themselves on their old enemies and op- pressors. And this they think must be done, not by a heavenly, spiritual king, ruling in the things concerning religion and the wor- ship of God, but by one that, having a mighty kingdom in this world, shall by force and power subdue their enemies under them. Such a one, therefore, they desire and look for. And how hard it is for them to depose these thoughts, unless they are treed by the grace of God from the carnal affections mentioned, is not hard to guess. And these are some of those especial occasions whereby the Jews, through their own blindness, are hardened in their unbelief and disobedience unto the gospel, whereunto others of the like kind may be added.
30. This is the faith and expectation of the present Jews all the world over concerning the Messiah in whom they place their confidence: A mere man he is to be, a king over the Jews at Je- rusalem, who shall conquer many nations; and so give peace, pros- perity, and plenty, unto all the Israelites in their own land. But what great matter is in all this? Have not other men done as much and more for their citizens and people? Can they fancy that their Messiah should be more victorious or successful than Alex- ander? They dare not hopeit. At a disputation before the pope and cardinals at Rome, which they have recorded in Shebet Jehudah, they openly professed that they never expected so great glory by their Messiah as that which they saw them attended withal; and Manasseh confesseth that it is no great or extraordinary matter which they looked for by him, De Resur., lib. 1. cap. xxi. “Non est,” saith he, “tantum miraculum si Messias veniat subjugatum regna sibi et imperia multa, cum non raro accidisse videamus ut humiles aliqui abjectique ad regna et imperia pervenerint, terra- rumque multarum domini fierent;”—“It is no such miracle that the Messiah should come and subdue many kingdoms and empires unto himself, seeing it often falls out that men of mean and abject condition do come unto kingdoms and empires, and are made lords of many countries.” It is so indeed. They say nothing of him but what may be paralleled in the stories of the nations of the world, especially considering the shortness of his reign, which they begin to think shall not be above forty years.
31. But do these things answer the promise made concerning him from the foundation of the world? Is this the meaning of the promise given unto Adam? Was this the end of the call and separa- tion of Abraham? this the intendment of the promise made unto
SECT. 30-32. | CONCERNING THE MESSIAH. 259
him, that “ in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed?” Is this only the importance of it, that towards the end of the world many of them shall be conquered? Was this the intent of the oath made unto David, and of the “sure mercies” confirmed unto him and his thereby? Do all the promises in the Prophets, set out in words glorious and magnificent, end in a warrior inferior it may be unto many of those whose destruction they prophesied of? Or is not this rather a way to expose the whole Old Testament unto scorn and reproach, as making the promises thereof not to extend unto that glory which in others the penmen of it despised, or at least to regard only things of the same nature with them? Was this the expecta- tion of the fathers of old? Is this that which they desired, prayed for, longed for, esteeming all the glory of their present enjoyments as nothing in comparison of it? What is in this Messiah, that he should be the hope and “ desire of all nations?” Did God set him forth as the great effect of his love, grace, goodness, and faithfulness towards them, and then bring forth a military king, in whose exploits they were not all to be concerned? Was the church in travail for so many generations to bring forth this fighter? Had they no eye of old unto spiritual and eternal things in the promise of the Messiah? Of late, indeed, Josephus Albo tells us that the doctrine of the coming of the Messiah is not fundamental; and Hillel of old main- tained that Hezekiah was the Messiah. “ He should have been go,” saith another, “ had he composed a song unto God.” “ Bar-Cosba,” a seditious necromancer, “is the Messiah,” says R. Akiba. “ He shall come, it may be, immediately before the resurrection,” saith Manasseh. But do these thoughts suit the faith, hope, prayers, and expectations of the ‘church of old? do they answer any one promise of God concerning him? No man, not utterly unacquainted with the Scripture, can give the least countenance unto such imaginations.