1. THE third branch of that great supposition and fundamental article of faith whereon the apostle builds his arguments and rea- sonings wherewith he deals with the Hebrews, is, that Jesus whom he preached was the true and only promised Messiah, who came forth from God for the accomplishment of his work, according to the time determined and foretold. The confirmation of this foun- dation of our faith and profession is that which now, in the third
SECT, 1-3] THE ONLY TRUE AND PROMISED MESSIAH. 369
place, we must engage in. A subject this is whereon I could insist at large with much satisfaction to myself, nor have T just cause to fear that the matter treated of would be irksome to any Christian reader; but we must have respect. unto our present design, for it is not absolutely and of set purpose that we handle these things, but merely with respect unto that further end of opening the springs of the apostle’s divine reasonings in this epistle, and therefore we must contract, as much as may be, the arguments that we have to plead in this case; and yet neither can this be so done but that some con- tinuance of discourse will be unavoidably necessary. And the course we shall proceed in is the same we have passed through in our fore- going demonstrations of the promise of the Messiah and of his coming. Our arguments are first to be produced and vindicated from the particular exceptions of the Jews, and then their opposi- tion to our thesis in general is to be removed, referring an answer unto their special objections unto another dissertation.
2. That we may the more orderly annex our present discourse unto that foregoing, our first argument shall be taken from that which is proved and confirmed therein,—namely, the time limited and determined for the coming of the Messiah. Two ways there are whereby the time fore-appointed of God for the coming of the Messiah is signified and made known:—First, By certain rexujpra, or evident tokens, taken from the Judaical church, with the state and condition of the whole people of the Jews. This we have in- sisted on from Gen. xlix.10; Hag. ii. 3, 6-9; Mal. iii. 1. Secondly, By acomputation of the time itself as to its duration, from a cer- tain fiwed date unto its expiration. This way we have unfolded and vindicated at large from Dan. ix. 24-27. And although herein we have evidenced the truth and exactness of the computation in- sisted on by us, as far as any chronological accounts of time past are capable of being demonstrated, yet we have also manifested that our argument depends not on the precise bounding of the time limited, but lying év rAdre:, is of equal force however the computa- tion be calculated, the whole time limited being undeniably expired before or at the destruction of the city and temple. Hence is the foundation of our first argument :—
Before or at the expiration of that time the promised Messiah was to come; before or that time, as denoted and described by the general rexynpia, or evident tokens before mentioned, and limited by the computation insisted on, came Jesus, and no other that the Jews can or do pretend to have been the Messiah: and therefore he was the true, promised Messiah.
3, The foundation of this argument,—namely, that the Messiah was to come within the time limited, prefixed, and foretold,—cannot be shaken without calling into question the truth of all promises and
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370 JESUS OF NAZARETH [ EXERC. XVII
predictions in the Old Testament, and consequently the faithfulness and power of God. The great design, whose lines are drawn in the face, and whose substance lies in the bowels of the Old Testament, and which is the spirit that enlivens the whole doctrine and story of it, the bond of union wherein all the parts of it do centre, with- out which they would be loose, scattered, and deformed heaps, is the bringing forth of the Messiah, the Saviour of the world. With- out an apprehension of this design, and faith therein, neither can a letter of it be understood, nor can a rational man discover any im- portant excellency in it. Him it promiseth, him it typifieth, ham — it teacheth and prophesieth about, him it calls all men to desire and expect. When it hath done thus in several places, it expressly limits, foretells, and declares the time wherein he shall be sent and exhibited. If there be a failure herein, seeing it is done to give evidence to all other things that are spoken concerning him, by which they are to be tried, and to stand or fall as they receive ap- probation or discountenance from thence, to what end should any man trouble himself about that which is cast as a fancy and empty imagination by its own verdict? If, then, the Messiah came not within the time limited, all expectation from the scripture of the Old Testament must come to nought; which those with whom at present we contend will not grant.
Nor can the Jews, on such a supposition, in any measure defend the truth of it against an infidel; for unto his inquiry, Where is the promised Messiah? if they shall plead their usual pretences, it is easy for him to reply, that these things being nowhere mentioned or intimated in the books themselves, are only such subterfuges as any man may palliate the most open untruths withal. And, indeed, the ridiculous figment of his being born at the time ap- pointed, but kept hid to this day they know not where, is not to be pleaded when they deal with men not bereft of their senses or judicially blinded by God; for besides that the whole of it is a childish, toyish fiction, inconsistent with the nature and being of their Messiah, whom they make to be a mere man, subject to mor- tality in his whole person, like all the other sons of Adam, it suits not at all unto the difficulty intended to be assoiled by it; for it is not his being born only, but also his accomplishment of his work and office at the time determined, which is foretold. Nor is there any one jot more of probability in their other pretence, about their own sims and unworthiness; for, as we have declared, this is no- thing but in plain terms to assert that God hath violated his faith and promise, and that in a matter wherein the great concernments of his own glory and the welfare of all mankind do consist, upon the account of their miscarriages, which as they either can not or will not remedy, so he himself hath not (though he might haye so