16. The next collection of promises which they insist upon to their purpose, is of those which intimate the destruction of idolatry and false worship in the world, with the abundance of the knowledge of the Lord, taking away all diversity in religion, that shall be in the days of the Messiah. Such is that of Jer. xxxi. 34, “They shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lorp: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lorp.” And Zeph. iii. 9, “I will turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lorp, to serve him with one consent.”’ As likewise that of Zech. xiv. 9, “ And the LorD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lorp, and his name shall be one.” And sundry other predictions there are of the same importance, all which are to be accomplished at the coming of the Messiah. “But for the present we see,” say they, “the contrary prevailing in the world. Ido- latry is still continued, and that among the Christians themselves; diversities of religion abound, so that there are now more sects and opinions in the world; nor can the Jews and Christians agree in this
' yery matter about the Messiah: all which make it evident that he is not yet come who shall put an end to all this state of things.”
440 JEWS’ OBJECTIONS AGAINST [ EXERC. XVIII.
17. Ans. It will prove in the issue that the mention of these, as well as of other promises, will turn to their disadvantage. Their accomplishment, in the sense of the Scripture, hath been so plain, evident, and manifest, that nothing but prejudice and obstinate blindness can once call it into question. For the further manifesta- tion hereof we may observe,—(1.) That these things are not spoken absolutely, but comparatively. It is not to be thought that in the days of the Messiah there shall be no means of instruction in the knowledge of the Lord used; as that parents should not teach their children, and the officers of the church and others those that stand in need of teaching: for neither do the Jews indeed imagine any such thing, nor can they do so without the rejection of the precepts of the law of Moses and the predictions recorded in the prophets, wherein God promiseth that in those days he will give the people pastors after his own heart, priests and Levites, to teach them his mind and will. But this is that which is signified in these expressions,—namely, that in those days there shall be such a plentiful effusion of the Spirit of wisdom and grace as shall cause the true saving knowledge of God to be more easily obtained, and much more plentifully to abound, than it did in the time of the law, when the people, by a hard yoke and insupportable burden of carnal ordinances, were darkly, meanly, and difficultly instructed in some part of the knowledge of God. And that the words are thus to be interpreted, the many promises that are given concerning the instruction of the church in the days of the Messiah, and his own office of being the great prophet of the church, which the Jews acknowledge, do undeniably evince. (2.) That the terms, “all people,” and “ nations,” are necessarily to be under- stood, as before explained, for many nations, those in an especial manner in whom the church of Christ is concerned; neither can any one place be produced where an absolute universality of them is in- tended. (8.) That the season of the accomplishment of these and the like predictions is not limited to the day or year of the Messiah’s coming, as the Jews, amongst other impossible fictions, imagine, but extends itself unto the whole duration of the kingdom of the Mes- siah, as hath been showed before. (4.) That God sometimes is said to do that which he maketh provision of outward means for the effecting of, though, as to some persons and times, they may be frus- trated of their effect. And this the Jews not only acknowledge, but also contend for, when they give an account why the promises which concern themselves are not yet fulfilled; the reason whereof they suppose, or at least pretend, to lie in their sin and unworthiness.
18. These things being supposed, we may quickly see what was the event as to those promises upon the coming of the true and only Messiah: for,—(1.) It is known to all, and not denied by those ~ with whom we have to do, that at the coming of Jesus of Nazareth,
SECT. 17, 18.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION ANSWERED. 441
setting aside that knowledge and worship of God which was in Judea, a little corner of the earth,—and that also, by their own con- fession, then horribly defiled and profaned,—the whole world, espe- cially the greatest and most potent and flourishing nations of it, and in particular the whole Roman empire, especially concerned in these predictions, was utterly ignorant of the true God, and engaged in the worship of idols and devils, and that from time immemorial. (2.) That although the Jews had taken great pains, and compassed sea and land to make proselytes, yet they were very few, and those very obscure persons, whom they could at any time or in any place prevail withal to receive the knowledge or give up themselves unto the worship of the God of Israel; of converting people or nations unto his obedience, they never entertained the least hope. (3.) It is manifest to all the world, that not only upon the coming of Jesus, but also by virtue of his law and doctrine, all the old idolatry of the world was destroyed ; and that whole fabric of superstition which Satan had been so many ages engaged in the erection of was cast to the ground, and those gods of the earth which the nations wor- shipped utterly famished. Hence it is come to pass at this day, that no people or nation under heaven doth continue to worship those gods which the old empires of the world adored as their deities, and in whose service they waged war against the God of Israel and his people. And all that knowledge that is at this day in the world of one true living God, and the reception of the God of Israel for that true God, however abused, as it is by some Mohammedans and others, did originally proceed from the doctrine of Jesus Christ, whom these ungrateful people hate and persecute. Had it not been for him and his gospel, the true God, the God of their fore- fathers, had been no more owned in the world at this day than he was at his coming in the flesh; and yet these poor blinded creatures can see no glory in him or in his ministry. (4.) The Lord Jesus Christ, by his Spirit and word, did not only destroy idolatry and false worship in the world, but also brought the greatest and most potent nations of it to the knowledge of God; so that, in comparison of what was past, it covered the earth “as the waters cover the sea.” This the Jews saw and repined at, in the flourishing times of the Roman empire, when “the Lorp was one, and his name one” in the whole earth, as that expression is used in the Scripture. (6.) The way whereby this knowledge and worship of the true God was dispersed over the face of the earth, and spread itself like an inun- dation of saving waters over the world, was by such a secret energy of the Spirit of Christ accompanying his word and the ministration of it, that it wholly differed from that operose, burdensome, and, for the most part, ineffectual way of teaching which was used by the priests, Levites, and scribes of old; there being much more of the