20. Thirdly, They insist on the promises which concern them- selyes; and these of all others they most mind and urge against their adversaries. Nothing, they say, is more certain and evident in the Scripture, than that the people of Israel shall be brought into a blessed and prosperous condition by the Messiah at his coming;
444 JEWS’ OBJECTIONS AGAINST [EXERO. XVIII.
and, in particular, that by him they shall be brought home into their own land: and to this purpose they plead, Isa. xi. 12, ii. liv., lx.-lxiii., Ixvi.; Jer. xxx., xxxi.; Ezek. xxxvi—xlvii.; whereunto sundry other places of a like importance may be added. But now, say they, instead hereof, that whole people is scattered over the face of the earth, under great misery and oppression for the most part, without the least interest in the country promised unto them. And from hence it is that they most obstinately conclude that the Mes- siah is not yet come; for until they are rich, wealthy, and powerful, they will not believe that God is faithful.
21. Ans. It would be too long a work, and not suitable unto our present desigai, to go over all the promises in particular which seem to have an aspect this way, or wherein mention is made of Abraham, the seed of Abraham, Jacob, Israel, and the people of Israel and Judah. Besides, the exposition of them may readily be got from many learned commentaries extant im all languages on the prophe- cies of the Old Testament. JI shall therefore only give such general. answers, as, being applied unto the several particular mstances, will manifest the insufficiency of the Jews’ argument from promises of this nature. (1.) Then, in the consideration of these promises, we must carefully distinguish between those which had their full, at least principal, accomplishment in the return of the people from the captivity of Babylon, and those which have a direct respect unto the days of the Messiah. It is known that the prophets do very usually set out that merciful deliverance in metaphorical expressions, so as to set off the greatness of the mercy itself. But the present Jews, who now look for the accomplishing of all’ the most strained allegories in a literal sense, supposing that the deliverance which their fore- fathers then obtained, because of their ensuing trouble and poverty, did not answer what is spoken of it, do wrest them all to the times of the Messiah, when they hope they shall receive them in full measure; for they reckon all things according to their outward gain and profit, and not according to the manifestation of the love and glory of God therein. These promises, then, are in the first place to be set apart, as not concerned in our present business and difference. (2.) We have manifested before that there is mention of a double Israel in the Scripture ;—the spiritual Israel, that is, all the sons of the faith of Abraham, in all ages and places throughout the world; and an Israel according to the flesh, or the carnal pos- terity of Jacob, which the present Jews are. This distinction we have elsewhere confirmed. Now, many of the promises pleaded belong to Israel in the first sense; that is, the church and people of God, who by faith are admitted into the covenant of Abraham, and so made inheritors of the promises. And these also, which are by far the greatest number, are to be set aside from our present con-
SECT. 21.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION ANSWERED. 445
sideration of them. (3.) It hath been proved that oftentimes spiri- tual things are expressed metaphorically in the prophets,—by words which, in their literal, first sense, denote things outward and corporeal. This is sufficiently evident from the instances formerly given, wherein such things are spoken as it is utterly impossible that they should have a literal accomplishment; and of the like sort there are others innumerable. And thus most of the predictions that concern peace and prosperity must necessarily intend spiritual peace with God, because, concerning the same seasons, wars and trials are in other places foretold. (4.) Whatever is foretold and promised concerning the Jews themselves in the days of the Messiah, doubtless they have no ground nor colour of reason to expect the accomplishment of it until they receive him, own him, and submit unto him; which to this day they have not done. When Moses went forth to visit them of old in their distress, and slew the Egyptian that smote one of them, because they refused him, and would not understand that it was he whom God would deliver them by, and endeavoured to be- tray him to death, their bondage was continued forty years longer; and yet at length by the same Moses were they delivered; and although they have refused and rejected him who was promised to be their Saviour, and so continue to this day in their captivity, spi- ritual and temporal, yet it is he by whom, in the time appointed, they shall be delivered from the one and the other. But this shall not be done until they own and receive him: which when God shall give them hearts to do, they will quickly find the blessed success thereof ; for,—(5.) We grant that there are many promises on record in the Scripture concerning their gathering together, their return to God by the Messiah, with the great peace and glory that shall ensue thereupon. Set aside their opinion concerning the perpetuity of the ceremonial law, and, their return, in the observation of it, unto their carnal ordinances, built on a supposition that God is pleased with the blood of bulls and goats for its own sake, and not as a significa- tion of that which was infinitely more excellent and glorious,—an apprehension which the whole world hath, as it were by joint consent, long ago renounced ; and cast away the vain and foolish imaginations about their sensual pleasures, behemoth, the wine of paradise, and literal accomplishment of professed allegories, which the wisest among themselves begin to be ashamed of; and there is nothing in their own expectations but we acknowledge that they shall be made par- takers of it. Return they shall to their own land, to enjoy it for a quiet and everlasting possession, their adversaries being destroyed; filled they shall be also with the light and knowledge of the will and worship of God, so as to be a guide and blessing unto the residue of the Gentiles who shall seek after the Lord; and, it may be, be in- trusted with great empire and rule in the world. The most of these