1. Unto the invincible testimonies before insisted on, we may add some other considerations, taken from the Jews themselves, that are both suitable unto their conviction, and of use to strengthen the faith of them who do believe. And the first thing that offers itself unto us, is their miserable fluctuation and uncertainty in the whole doctrine about the Messiah, ever since the time of his coming and their rejection of him.
2. That the great fundamental of their profession from the days of Abraham, and that which all their worship was founded in and had respect unto, was the promise of the coming of the Messiah, we have before sufficiently proved. Until the time of his coming, this they were unanimous in, as also in their desires and expectations of his advent. Since that time, as they have utterly lost all faith in him as to the great end for which he was promised, so all truth as to the doctrine concerning his person, office, and work, plentifully delivered in the Old Testament.
Tn their Talmud Tractat. Sanhed. they do nothing but wrangle, conjecture, and contend about him, and that under such notions and apprehensions of him as the Scripture giveth no countenance unto. When he shall come, and how, where he shall be born, and what he shall do, they wrangle much about, but are not able to determine any thing at all; at which uncertainty the Holy Ghost never left the church in things of so great importance. Hence some of them adhered to Bar-Cosba for the Messiah, a bloody rebel;
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and some of them in after ages to David el David, a wandering juggler; and Moses Cretensis, and sundry other pretenders, have they given up themselves to be deluded by (as of late unto the foolish apostate Sabadias, with his false prophets, R. Levi and Nathan), who never made the least appearance of any one character of the true Messiah, as Maimonides confesseth and bewaileth. The dis- putes of their late masters have not any thing more of certainty or consistency than those of their Talmudical progenitors. And this at length hath driven them to the present miserable relief of their infidelity and despair, asserting that he shall not come until imme- diately before the resurrection of the dead; only they take care that some small time may be left for them to enjoy wealth and pleasure, with dominion over the Edomites and Ishmaelites,—that is, Chris- tians and Turks, under whom they live,—as they are yet full of thoughts of revenge and retaliation in the days of their Messiah. Now; whereunto can any man ascribe this fluctuation and uncertainty in and about that which was the great fundamental article of the faith of their forefathers, and their utter renunciation of the true notion and knowledge of the Messiah, but unto this, that having long ago renounced him, they exercise their thoughts and expectation about a chimera of their own brains, which, having no subsistence in itself, nor foundation in any work or word of God, can afford them no certainty or satisfaction in their contemplation about it?
3. Again; the state and condition of this people for the space of above sixteen hundred and thirty years gives evidence to the truth contended for. The whole time of the continuance of their church- state and worship, from the giving of the law on Mount Sinai to the final destruction of the city and temple by Titus, was not above sixteen hundred and thirty years, or sixteen hundred and forty upon the longest account, allowing all their former captivities and intermissions of government into the reckoning. They have, then, continued in a state of dispersion and rejection from God as long as ever they were accepted for his church and people. What their condition hath been in the world for these sixteen ages is known unto all, and what may be thence concluded we shall distinctly consider.
4, When God took the Jews to be his people, he did it by a spe- cial and solemn covenant. In this covenant he gave them promises, which were all made good unto them unto the utmost date and expiration of it in the coming of the Messiah. And they princi- pally respected these three heads:—First, That they should possess the land of Canaan, and there enjoy that worship which he had prescribed unto them, See Exod. vi. 4, xxxiv. 10, 11; Lev. xxvi. 9-11; Deut. viii. 18, xxix. 13; Ps. ev. 10, 11. Secondly, That he would defend them from their adversaries; or if at any time he
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gave them up to be punished and chastised for their sins, yet upon their repentance and supplications made unto him, he would de- liver them from their oppressors, Deut. xxx. 1-5; Neh. i. 9; Deut. xxxil. 35, 36; 1 Kings viii. 33, 34. Thirdly, That he would continue prophets among them, to instruct them in his will, and to reclaim them from their miscarriages, Deut. xviii. 18. The whole Penta- teuch, all their divine writings, are full of promises about these things; and, as we said, until the time limited for the expiration of that special covenant, they were all made good unto them. That it was to expire themselves are forced to acknowledge, because of the express promise of a new or another covenant to be made, not like unto it, Jer. xxxi. The land given them for inheritance, and the place designed for the worshp of God therein, were continued in their possession, notwithstanding the mighty attempts made by the nations of the world for their extirpation. And when at any time he gave them up for a season unto the power of their adver- saries, because of their sins and proyocations,—as unto the Babylo- nians in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and afterwards unto the Grecians or Syrians in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes,—yet still he foretold them of their condition, promised them deliverance from it, and in a short time accomplished it, though it could not be done without the ruin of other kingdoms and empires. The oppression of the Babylonians continued but seventy years; and the persecu- tion of Antiochus prevailed only for three years and a half. Prophets also he raised up unto them in their several generations, yea, in the time of their great distress; as Jeremiah at the time of their deso- lation, Ezekiel and’ ‘Daniel in Babylon, Haggai and Zechariah in their poverty after their return: which dispensation ceased not until they pointed out unto them the end of the covenant, and told them that the Messiah should come speedily and suddenly unto his temple, Mal. iii. 1.