11. Sometimes they will plead that it is for their own sins and the sins of the generations that succeeded the destruction of the second temple that they are kept thus long in misery and captivity. But we know that they use this plea only as a covering for their obstinate blindness and infidelity. Take them from this dispute, -and they are continually boasting of their righteousness and _holi- ness: for they do not only assure us that they are better than all the world besides, but also much better than their forefathers, as Manas- seh plainly affirms in the place before cited; and that on the day of expration, that is’ once a-year, they are as holy as the angels in heaven! ‘There are, therefore, one or two things which I would de- sire to know of them as to this pretence of their own sins, which on another account must also be afterwards insisted on.
First, then, Whereas it is a principle of their faith, that all Jews, excepting apostates, are so holy and righteous that they shall all be saved, have all a portion in the blessed world to come, whence is it that none of them are so righteous as to be returned unto the land of Canaan? Is it not strange, that that righteousness which serves the turn to bring them all to heaven will not serve to bring any one of them to Jerusalem, this latter being more openly and fre- quently promised unto them than the former? I know not how to solve this difficulty; ips: viderint.
Again, repentance from their sins is a thing wholly in their own power, or it is not. If they shall say it is in their own power, as
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generally they do, I desire to know why they defer it? The brave imaginations that they have, of the levelling of mountains, the divid- ing of rivers, the singing of woods and dancing of trees, of the coaches and chariots of kings to carry them, as also their riding upon the shoulders of their rich neighbours into Jerusalem, the conquest of the world, the eating of behemoth and drinking the wine of paradise, the riches, wives, and long life, that they shall have in the days of the Messiah, do make them, as they pretend, patiently en- dure all their long exile and calamity. And can this not prevail with them for a little repentance, which they may perform when they please with a wet finger, and so obtain them all in a trice? If they are so evidently blind, foolish, and mad, in and about that which they look upon as their only great concernment in this world, have they not great cause to be jealous lest they are also equally blind in other things, and particularly in that wherein we charge them with blindness? This, it seems, is the state of these things: Unless they repent, the Messiah will not come; unless he come, they cannot be delivered out of their calamity, nor enjoy the promises. To repent is a thing in their own power; which yet they had rather endure all miseries, and forego all the promises of God, than take in hand, or go through with it. And what shall we say to such a per- verse generation of men, who openly proclaim that they will live in their sins, though they have never more to do with God unto eter- nity? If they shall say that repentance is the gift of God, and that without his pouring forth his Spirit upon them they cannot attain unto it, then I desire to know whence it is that God doth not give them repentance, as he did to their forefathers, if the covenant con- tinue established with them as in former days?
From what hath been discoursed, it doth sufficiently appear that the state and condition of the Jews hath been such in the world for these sixteen hundred years as manifests the end of their special co- venant to be long since come, and consequently the Messiah, in whom it was to expire.
12. There is one of them, a nameless person, not unlearned, who hath written somewhat lately in the Portuguese language, which is translated into Latin by Brenius the Socinian, who gives so satis- factory an answer, in his own conceit, unto this argument, that he concludes that every one who is not obstinate or blinded with cor- tupt affections must needs acquiesce therein! His confidence, if not his reasons, deserves our consideration, especially considering that he offers somewhat new unto us, which their former masters did not insist upon.
That, then, which he returns as an answer unto the inquiry of the causes and reasons of their present long captivities and misery, is the sins of their forefathers under the first temple. The greatness
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of these sins, he saith, is expressed by the prophet Ezekiel, chap. xvi. 48, “As I live, saith the Lord Gop, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.” To which he adds Isa. i. 9, where mention is made again of Sodom. So that this captivity is, to them, in the room of such a destruction as Sodom was overthrown withal.