lewsTvadi.tions about the comingof the Mefiah. of it doth utterly fail ? Was it toexpire ? What period can be aligned unto its du- ration, but only that of the comingof the Melkah and the eftablifhment of a New Covenant in him ? Is not thedenyal hereof, the ready way to make the men of the world tarnAtbeittr, and to look upon theScriptures of the Old Tellament as a meet Fable, when they (hall be taught that the Promifes contained ink, were but con- jecures, deceitful words, thát came to nothing. Again, How are they delivered front their Adverfaries ? How are they defended from their Oppyeffors ? There is not a known Nation in the world, wherein they Live riot, either openly or privately , in Exile and Banithment from their own Land: About their opprcffions, and againit their©ppreffors, they have cryed out and pray- ed after their manner for many Generations. Where is the prote&ion, the delive- rance promifed ?- if the time ,benot yet'expired for the coming of the Mefab, why are theynot delivered ? What word is there in the Law, or the Prophets, that they than' not bedelivered our ofTemporal diftreffes any other way but by the Web i' bath it not beenötherwiE with them ? Were they not delivered from former Oppref- fions andCaptivities, by other means ? Couldnot Godofold havedifpoffefred the Ro-- mans of the Land.ofCunaan,and afterwardsthe Saracèns,and can he not-now the Turk', as eafily as he did the Babylóniam, Perfume and Grecians? If theCovenant ofthofe pro- , mifes be not expired in the comingof the Mefliah, what accountcan they give of thefe things ? Further, where are theProphets, promifedunto them ? can they name one line the daies ofJohn Baptilf, whom they owned for a Prophet ? hath any. one amongft. them pretended to any fuckthing, whom the event, and themfelves thereon have not difco- vered to be an Impoftor? Such was Theudas, and Moles Cretenfis, with .Come few others. Is itnòt Strange, that they who never long wanteda Prophet in their ftreights and dif&èulties, and fometimes had Many ofthem together, should now in their ut- molt mifery, wandringsand darknefs, be left utterly deftitute of any one for' a thou- fand fix hundred years, andupwards ? It -is thegeneral confellion of all their Matters, that they have left the Holy GIOJI,or Spirit of Prophecy. After the finifhing of the fe-. cond Temple, they fay, and they fay truly, that Prophecy ceafed. rt1r1 MUM +7 1-71i Pal. mama . re-71; 4tyit na 11y ti+a) =noel +]wit ; faith Seedier Haggeon. on Daniel the 9th. Ifiael badno Prophet after the finijhing of the fecond boufe, but thou who enjoyed the Bath Kol. But what is now become of that. Bath Kol alto for a thoufand fix hundredyears ? Is not all pretenceof Revelations utterly departed ? what then is be- come ofthat Covenanr wherein itwas promifed unto them? yea we know that they havenot only left the Holy Ghof?, as a fpirit ofprophecy ; but alfo as a fpirit ofghaceand fupplications ; fo that betides a few fuperJfit/ourforms repeated by number and tale there-isno fuch thing as prayer among(( them ; as Tome oftheir late Matters have ac- knowledged. Whatreafon now can be aligned of this ftate and condition of things, but only that the Covenant wherein the good things mentioned were promifedunto them, had a time limited unto its when it was to give place unto a new one of another nature. And this the Jews acknowledge is to take date from the cording' ofthe Mefftáb. God is faithful, unchangeable, able tomake good his promifes and his word to the ut- moll. Theprefent Jews are no lets Jews of the carnal feed of Abraham, thentheir forefathers were. - It cannot be thenbut that theCovenant madewith them, until the coming of the Meflîaü, is long fine expired. And therefore alfo, that he is long Croce come. Two things in general, the Jews reply unto thefe confiderations, the one, as they haveoccafion and advantage, the other, openly and conttantly : The firil which they only mention, as they have occafion, is theprofperity of Comé of their Nation in this or that Country, with the honour and riches, that Tomeofthem have attained unto. Unto thispurpofe, they tell us ftoriesoftheir number and wealth in the Eaff, out of Benjanrn Tudsüenfis and others, with the riches of fome of them in the Weffern parts ofthe world alit). But themfelves know that none ofthefe things, not one of them, was promifed unto them in the Covenant that God made" with diem upon Mount Horeb. All the promifes of itrefpeétcd the Land of Canaan, with their prefervation there; or return thither. What therget abroad in the world, elfewhere under the power and dominion of other Nations, befalls them in-a wayof common providence, asthe like things do the vileft wretches of theearth, andnot in a way'of any efpecìal promife. And therefore when Daniel andNehemiah, with others, were exalted unto glory 197 4.7 4. 8, 4
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