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End put to the Poffibility of their Compliance with the ceremonial Parts of the Law of Mofes. All which Confiderations when put together seem to have extorted the Confeffion of fome of the eminent Rabbins in the Talmud; that the Messiah ought to have been come long ago. For thus you may find it mentioned under the Head Shanedrim that R. Raf hath said, all the appointed Times, i. e. for the coming of the Messiah, are at an End. Upon which Account it probably is that the Modern Rabbins difcourage all Enquiries into the Scriptures in Relation to the Time of the Coming of the Messiah, and answer those that are inquifitive about it, with telling them it is a fecret, or hidden, Thing.

And here I cannot but remark that it hath been often obferved of the Papists, that, in their Disputes with the Proteftants, they are apt to make Objections against Quotations out of the Scriptures, under Pretence of their Obfcurity. And why is this? But because the Scriptures make against them. And may we not fuppofe that it is for the fame Reason, that the modern RabH bins

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bins difcourage all Enquiries into the Scriptures concerning the Times predicted for the coming of the Meffiah, and answer the Enquirers with Sathum bu? I leave the Reply to the Dictates of your own Con fcience.

I beseech you therefore Sir, to confider that, when the first Temple, which was built by Solomon was deftroyed by Nebucadnezzar, and it pleafed God to vifit the Jews with a Captivity of feventy Years duration, the Reafon affigned for it is this;* All the Cities of the Priests, and the People tranfgreffed very much,

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AFTER ALL THE ABOMINATION OF THE HEATHEN, and polluted the Houfe of the Lord, which he had hallowed in in Jerufalem. And the Lord God sent to them by the Hands of his Meffengers, rifing up by Times and fending; because he bad Compaffion on his People, and on his Dwelling Place, but THEY MOCKED THE MESSENGERS OF GOD, AND DESPISED HIS WORDS, AND MISUSED HIS PROPHETS,

* 2. Chron. xxxvi. 14,421,-

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PHETS, until the Wrath of the Lord arofe against his People, and there was no Healing, &c.

Where it may be obferved that here are two Reasons affigned for Gods Displeasure against the Jews at that Time, and that is, First, their having tranfgreffed after the Abomination of the Heathen; and Secondly their having mocked the Meffengers of God, and defpifed his Words, and mifufed his Propbets. Whereas the Jews as they are far from being Idolaters at prefent, or from giving any Encouragement, or even Čountenance, to Idolatry: So were they at the Time of the Deftruction of the fecond Temple by Titus, very far from Tranf greffing after the Abomination of the Heathen. What Reafon then can be affigned why their prefent Defolation fhould fhould be fo much more grievous than their former one; even a Defolation that hath already continued above seventeen hundred Years, but this? That they mocked the Meffenger of God, even the Messenger of the Covenant, a Meffenger of more eminent Note than any which had been fent

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to them under the firft Covenant; and therefore their Punishment is fo much the more grievous.

For let us fuppofe this Meflenger was the Meffiah; if then this Prophet was mifufed, was defpifed and rejected, and cut off out of the Land, by your Ancestors, because he did not appear in the Form of a triumphant Prince and a Conqueror, in all the Pomp which worldly-minded Perfons had painted him in agreeably to their own Imaginations; and then I befeech you ye Sons of Ifrael to confider, whether your long, whether your tedious Defolation is not to be accounted for?

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This is a Subject I do not care to dwell upon, my Defire being to convince not to irritate; let us however confider that if thefe Things be evident, if thefe Quotations which I have produced out of the Scriptures and out of the Comments of the moft learned Jews thereon, as well as out of the Talmud, be true; whether it doth not reft upon the Jews to fhew that the Meffiah is already come according to the Time fixed by thofe Prophecies; least the

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Sons of Philiftia fhould triumph, and the Unbelievers in Revelation fhould fay, that the Scriptures of the Hebrew Biblehave no Truth in them?

Nothing I think can be more plain than that the Scriptures have declared, that the Messiah fhall appear before the Sceptre hould depart from Judah, as well as before the deftruction of the fecond Temple: But the Sceptre hath manifeftly departed long fince from Judah; and the fecond Temple hath been deftroyed above 1700 Years ago, and if no Messiah hath yet appeared, either in a State of Triumph, or of Mortification, how is the Veracity of thofe Prophecies to be vindicated?

I am very fenfible that it is faid in Anfwer thereto by fome of the modern Jews, that the Promises made in thofe Scriptures were only conditional, and that God on ac-. count of the Wickedness of the Jews hath put off, and poftponed the Time of fending the Meffiah, and deferred it to a further Seafon; fo that although he hath * Vifited their

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See Pfal. lxxxix.

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