196 left:Traditionsabout .the comingof the Meffiah. glory and riches among'the Babylonians and Perfians, yet they relied not therein, but pleaded the Covenant ofGod for their reftauration unto the Land promifed untoAbra- ham. And to fuppofe that the wealth of a fewJews up and down the world, gotten by Pbjfick, or Vfury, orfarmingof Cuytoms, is an accomplithment ofthe promifca be- fore infifled:on, is openly to delpife thepromifes, and the: Author of them? to. But it is pleaded, fecondlly,' by them, Thatit is for their fins that the coming' of the Mèfjirab is thus retarded .and prolonged. But it is not about the coming-of the Mefflah, direllyand ithmediately, that they are preffed withal! in thdfe confiderations; that which we enquire about, istheir preterit flare, and their long continuance therein, with the reafon of it ; only aiming to find out and difcover the true caute thereof: "this, they fay, is beeaufe of their ¡es and this alfo hi general we grant; Eut yet mutt further enquire, what they intend thereby I ask therefore whether it befor thefini, of theirforefathers, wholived before the lalt final difperfion, or for their fine, wh$have fince lived in their feveral Generations, that they are thus utterly forfaken_ Ïf they fhall fay, it is (or the fins of their forefathers, as Monafh plainly doth, welt. 43. in Gen. p. 65. And fundry others ofthemdone fame, then Idelire to know whether they think God to be changed from what he was of old, or whether he be not dill every way the fame as to all the promifes of theCovenant ; fuppofing they will fay that he is flit! the fame, I defier to know whether he did not in former times, in the dares of their Judges and Kings; cfpecially in theBab}donan Captivitypanifh them,for theirfins, with that contemperationof Jultice and mercy, which was agreeable unto the Tenor Ofthe Covenant ? , This I fuppofethey will hot deny, the Scripture (peaking fo fully unto ii, and theRighteoufnefs of God requiring it. f delire then to know what were thefinr of their forefathers, before thedellruélion of the fecond Temple, andyour final difperfion, which fo much, according to the Rules of the Covenant, exceeded the fins ofthem who lived before the defolationof the firfl Temple; and the captivity that mined ; for we know that the fins of thofe . formet were punifhed only with a difperfion, which fome of them faw thebeginning and ending of; the duration of the wholeof it notexceeding feventy years, after which they were returned again to their ownLand. Butthe captivityand difperlion which bath befallen them upon the fins ofchore who bvea before. the defiruétion ofthe fecondTemple, -as-they were in their manner and e.ntraircemuch more terrible, dreadful and trerner.dious then theformer ; fo they have now continued -in them above rwrnny.times: l vrneÿ years without any promife of á recovery. God being (fill the fame that he was, if the Old Covenant with. the Jews be Ihll In force. The difference- between .this difpenfation mull arife from the dif- tence of the fins of the one fort of perlons, and the other. Now of all the fins, which on the general account of the Law of God, the Eons ofmen canmake them- felves guilty of,Idolgtrydoubtlefs is'thegreateit : The chooling of other Gods is a eompleat renunciation of the true one. . And therefore comprifed in it all other fins whatever, forcafimg off the yoke of God, and our dependance on him as thebrft caufè, and laic end of all, it loth that ingrofs, and by wi,ole-tale', which other fins do only by retail; and therefore is this fin forbidden in the head of the Law, as intimating, that if thecommand of owning the true God , and him alone, be not adhered unto, it is to no purpofe to apply- our elves unto them that follow. Now itisknown to all that this tin of Idolatry abounded amongfì them under the firf Temple, and that alto for a longcontinuance, attended withViolence, Adulteries, Per. fecution and Oppreffion, but that thofe under the ("mom" Temple had contracted the guilt of this fin, the prefent yews do not pretend ; andwe know that they hated all appearance of it. Nor are they able' to affign. any other fins what ever, wherein they went higher in their provocations, then their Progenitors, under the firfl Tem- ple., What then is the caulè,of thedifferent event and fleece between them before infrtted on ? It cannot be, but that either they have contracted the guilt of fome COX. wherewith God wasmore difpleafed, then With the Idolatry of their f_ore-s, or thatthe Covenant made with them is expired, or than there bath been a coin -. dente of both theft; and that indeed is the condition of things with them. The Mefleah came , in whom the carnal Covenant was to expire, and they rejected and (kw him , ¡nifty deferving, their perpetuall rejeé%ion from it, and difinheti- tance. - f. t i. Sometimes theywill plead, that it is for their own fins and the-fins of the Genera- tions that fuccceded the dtftruEtion of the fecond Temple, that theyare kept thus long
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