424 JEWS’ OBJECTIONS AGAINST [ EXERC. XVIII.
made senseless and stupid by the power of his lusts, can make him- self guilty of. Many are the branches of this argument, many the considerations that concur in a contribution of evidence and strength unto it; all which to examine and improve is beyond our ‘present design The bare proposal of it is sufficient to cause all Jewish ex- ceptions to vanish out of the minds of sober and reasonable men. From it, therefore, with them that went before, we conclude the third part of our general thesis concerning the Messiah,—namely, That Jesus of Nazareth, whom Paul preached, was he.
EXERCITATION XVIII. JEWS’ OBJECTIONS AGAINST CHRISTIAN RELIGION ANSWERED.
1. Objections of the Jews against the doctrine of Christianity. 2. Their gene- ral argument to prove the Messiah not yet come—General answer—Prin- ciples leading to a right understanding of the promises concerning the Mes- siah. 3. Redemption and salvation promised by him spiritually—Folly and self-contradiction of the Jews, that expect only temporal deliverance by him. 4. Promises of temporal things accessory and occasional; thence conditional —The general condition of them all suited to the nature and duration of the kingdom of the Messiah. 5. Spiritual things promised in words which first signify things temporal—Reasons thereof—Of peace with God, and in the world. 6. Seed of Abraham, Jacob, Israel; Zion, Jerusalem; who and what intended thereby. 7. All nations, the world, the Gentiles, in the promise, who. 8,9. Promises suited unto the duration of the kingdom of the Mes- siah. 10. The calling and flourishing state of the Jews thereon. 11. Particular promises may not be understood, or understood amiss, without prejudice to the faith. 12. Application of these principles. 13, 14. Pro- mise of universal peace in the days of the Messiah, Isa. ii. 2-4, considered. 15. Jewish objections from it answered—Outward peace, how intended. 16, Promises of the diffusion of the knowledge of God, and of unity in his worship, Jer. xxxi. 34, Zeph. iii. 9, Zech. xiv. 9. 17-19. Jewish exceptions answered. 20. Promises concerning the restoration and glorious estate of Israel; 21. Fulfilled to the spiritual Israel; to the Jews in the appointed season—Their calling, and peace ensuing thereon.
1. THAT which remaineth, for a close unto these dissertations, is the consideration of those reasons and arguments wherewith the present Jews do endeavour, and their forefathers for many genera- tions have laboured, to defend their obstinacy and unbelief; and this we shall engage into with as much briefness as the nature of the matter treated of will admit. Many are the books which they have written among themselves, mostly in the Hebrew tongue, and some in other languages, but the Hebrew character, against Christians and their religion. Unto sundry of these they give triumphant, insulting titles, as though they had undoubtedly obtained a perfect victory
SECT. 1, 2.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION ANSWERED. 425
over their adversaries; but the books themselves in nothing answer their specious frontispieces. Take away wilful mistakes, gross para- logisms, false stories, and some few grammatical niceties, and they vanish into nothing. What is spoken by them or for them that seems to have any weight shall be produced and examined.
Sundry things they object unto the doctrine of the gospel con- cerning the person of the Messiah, or his being God and man, and the rejection of the Mosaical ceremonies and law, which they deem eternal; and many exceptions they lay against particular passages and expressions in the historical books of the New Testament. But all these things have been long since cleared and answered by others; and I have also myself spoken to the most important of them, partly in the preceding discourses, partly in my defence of the deity and satisfaction of Christ against the Socinians. For what concerns the law of Moses, and the abolition of it, as to the ceremonial worship therein instituted, it must be at large insisted on in that Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews which these discourses are only in- tended to make way unto. I shall not here, therefore, enter upon a particular discussion of their opinions, arguments, and objections about these things; besides, they belong not immediately to the sub- ject of our present discourse. It is about the coming of the Messiah simply that we are disputing. This we assert to be long since past. The Jews deny him to be yet come, living in the hope and expecta- tion of him; which at present is in them but as the giving up of the ghost. ‘The means whereby this dying, deceiving hope is supported in them comes now under examination; and this alone is the subject of our ensuing discourse.
2. To countenance themselves, then, in their denial of the coming of the Messiah, they do all of them make use of one general argu- ment, which they seek to confirm in and by several instances. Now, this is, that the promises made and recorded as to be accomplished at the coming of the Messiah are not fulfilled, and therefore the Mes- siah is not yet come. This fills up their books of controversies, and is constantly made use of by their expositors, so often as any occa- sion seems to offer itself unto them. The Messiah, say they, was promised of old. Together with him, and to be wrought by him, many other things were promised. ‘These things they see not at all fulfilled, nay, not [even] those which contain the only work and business that he was promised for; and therefore they will not be- lieve that he is come. ‘This general argument, I say, they seek to confirm by instances; wherein they reckon up all the promises which they suppose as yet unaccomplished, and so endeavour to establish their conclusion. These we shall afterwards cast under the several heads whereunto they do belong, and return that answer which the