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Pfal. cxviii.

22.

Chap. xxix.

9, 10, 11.

And now confider whether this be not the Cafe. It has been plainly prophefied, that your Builders would reject the

chief Corner-Stone: That he should be Ifai. viii. 14. for a Stone of Stumbling, and for a 15. Rock of Offence, to both the Houfes of Ifrael; for a Gin, and for a Snare, to the Inhabitants of Jerufalem: And that many among them should ftumble and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken-ftay yourselves and wonder, cry ye out, and cry: They are drunken, but not with Wine; they flagger, but not with strong Drink: For the Lord hath poured out upon you the Spirit of deep Sleep, and hath clofed your Eyes: The Prophets, and your Rulers, the Seers bath he covered; and the Vifion of all is become unto you as the Words of a Book that is fealed. Is not this literally your Cafe? Are not your Prophets now to you as a Book fealed up? Do you understand by them when you are to expect your Meffiah? Or what are the Signs of his Coming? No; they are all long fince paft: And you are left in the Dark, in Endless and Groundless Expectation!

And in this Method there is no Breach of God's Promifes; and yet his Judgments have their full Scope, and there is still Room and Hopes of his Mercy. When his Time comes to open your Eyes, then will you return to him, and he will turn to you; but even unto this Day, when Mofes is read, the Veil covers his Face from you; i.e. the true Import and full End of the Law; which Veil is done away in Chrift: For Chrift is the End of the Law for Righteousness to every one that Believeth.

5. To avoid all the Abfurdities of this Pretence of yours, fome of you have fet up another Notion, viz. That the Meffiah did come at the Time foretold by the Prophets; and has been in the World ever fince, and is ftill; but, for your Sins, conceals himself among the Lazars, or Lepers that fit at the Gates of Rome, or elsewhere.

Theodor,
Hackspan.
ubi fupra.
P. 351.

elsewhere. Others fay, that he is in Paradife, but there fettered in a Woman's Hair. This we muft fuppofe is by way of Allufion to Sampson and Da. lilah. Some of the Rabbies put a my ftical Senfe upon this, meaning by the Woman's Hair, in which the Meffiah is tied, our Evil Concupifcence, which retards his Coming.

How horribly abfurd and ridiculous is this! These fort of strained Excufes were enough to convert any Men of Reason amongst you. Befides that, they are contradictory; which fhews one must be falfe: For the former Pretence overthrows this; and this, if true, destroys that.

But what Foundation have you for this? What Prophecies have you for fuch a State of the Meffiah ?

What was the End of his Coming, to keep himself concealed for near 1800 Years? And at that Time to undergo fo miferable and wretched a Life, as you would have him?

How was his Coming to be a Light to the Gentiles, fo often prophesied of, if the Gentiles have not heard of him from that Time to this?

If he has undergone the State of a Leper and a Biggar, now for 1750 Years, how do you object the Ãfictions and low Eftate of Jefus for 33 Years, as inconfiftent with the glorious State of the Meffiah?

But if he be come, and you know him not, and that this, you think, will folve all thofe Prophefies concerning the Time of his Coming; behold your own Conjecture truly fulfilled: He is come, and you have not known him; while the Gentiles have been convinced by his Miracles, and fubmitted to him, even to the uttermoft Parts of the Earth; as was exprefly prophesied

of him.

Again; if you did not know him, what hinders but that you might likewife perfecute him? And why Should this feem a Thing fo impoffible to you? Have ye not done the fame to almost all of your own Pro

phet?

2 Chr.

xxiv. 21. Jer. xxvi. 8, 9.

phets? You ftoned Zechariah in the Court of the House of the Lord: You perfecuted Jeremiah, till the Day that Jerufalem was taken And the Hands of your Priefts and your Prophets were chief in the Purfuit of his Blood, and after them the Cry of all the People; as it was in your Perfecution of your Meffiah. How often did you rebel against Mofes, against David, against Solomon, against all your Prophets? How do they all complain against you?

Chr. xxxvi.

14, 15, 16.

Moreover all the Chief of the Priests, and the People, tranfgreffed very much, after all the Abominations of the Heathen; and polluted the House of the Lord, which he bad ballowed in Jerufalem: And the Lord God of their Fathers fent to them by his MessengersBut they mocked the Messengers of God, and defpifed his Words, and mifufed his Prophets, until there was no Remedy. And now it has rifen a hundredfold more, fince your Meffiah: And your not knowing your Meffiab was a juft Judgment upon you, for your rejecting

1 Kin. xix. 10.

Neh. ix. 26.

and perfecuting all your former Prophets. Elijah complained that you had flain them all, every one of the Prophets, but himself alone: And he was forced to flee for his Life, and was miraculously preferved. In the folemn Confeffion of the Priests and the Levites, and the Covenant which they and the Princes fealed, they confefs that they flew the Prophets, who teftified against them, to turn them to the Lord. This Branch was never forgot in all their Confeffions, for it was notorious; We have not hearkened unto thy Servants the Prophets, which Spoke in thy Name to our Kings, our Princes, and our Fathers, and to all the People of the Land. Why then should it be thought a Thing impoffible with you, that you should not hearken unto the laft Prophet, the Meffiah, who refused to hearken to any before him? Read all your Provocations recorded, Pfal. cvi. and

Dan. ix. 6.

then

Matth. xxiii.

29, 30, 31,

&c.

then your present Obftinacy will not appear fo ftrange to you, or fo totally difproportionable to your former Demeanour. It is faid, ver. 7. Our Fathers underfood not thy Wonders in Egypt. Then it is poffible that you might not understand the Wonders of your Meffiah. Your Forefathers killed the Prophets, and your Fathers built their Sepulchres: And you fay, If we had been in the Days of our Fathers, we would not have been Partakers with them in the Blood of the Prophets: Wherefore ye be Witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the Children of them who killed the Prophets. And how have you filled up the Measure of your Fathers! As our Meffiah told you beforehand that you would do. That he would send you Prophets and Apofiles; and that you Luke xi. 49, would lay and perfecute them; That 50. the Blood of all the Prophets, which was fhed from the Foundation of the World, might be required from your Generation. And how feverely has it been required! Believe, in this, our Meffiab to have been a true Prophet; and that this laft Sin of your crucifying him, and perfecuting his Apoftles and Messengers, whom he fent unto you, has been greater, as it has been more grievously punished, than all your former Provo cations: Of which that you may be more fenfible (for it is a material Confideration), I invite you, as the laft Thing I fhall fay upon this Head, to make the Comparison betwixt your former Captivities and Sufferings, and that much more heavy Hand of God, which has lain upon you fince your Crucifying of your Meffiab.

6. In the Book of Judges you are told of the feveral Captivities into which you were fold, for your repeated Idolatries Firft, unto the Hand of the King of Mefopotamia, for Eight Years. after Forty Years of Deliverance, unto Moab, for Eighteen Years. 3dly. Unto Jabin King of Canaan, for Twenty

Judges iii. 8. 11, 14.

Then, zdly, the King of

Ch.iv. 3. vi.

Years.

3.

1. x. 8. xiii. Years. 4thly, Into the Hand of Midian for Seven Years. 5thly, Of the Philifines and Ammonites, for Eighteen Years. 6thly, Of the Philistines, for Forty Years. The Seventh was the great and longeft Captivity of Seventy Years in Babylon. All thefe for your Idolatry. But after this you were cured of your Idolatry; and to this Day have kept yourselves in the greatest Abhorrence of it. And yet now, fince your rejecting of your Meffiah, and faying, Let his Blood be upon us, and our Children, you have undergone not a bare Captivity, as in Babylon, where you were all together, and Prophets fent amongst you to comfort you, and affure you of a Restoration, and that in Seventy Years; but a Difperfion over the Face of the whole Earth; without a King, without any Prophet, as a People forfaken of God, and without a Temple, or Sacrifice; and that not only for 70 or 700, but almoft 1800 Years.

And if this heavy Judgment be come upon you for your not understanding the Promises of God, and thereby hardening yourselves against the clear Proofs which your Meffiah brought of his Miffion, then is there no Appearance of your being delivered, till you fhall repent of this greater Sin, and more grievously punished than your Idolatries, to reject and crucify your Meffiah!

Limborch,
P.-99.

The ingenious and learned few before-mentioned, anfwers to this, That the Captivity or Difperfion of the Ten Tribes has been longer than that of the Tavo Tribes; and it cannot be faid, that the Captivity or Difperfion of the Ten Tribes, was for the rejecting of their Meffiah; and therefore, that it cannot be concluded, that the leffer Punishment of the Two Tribes was for a more heinous Sin (viz. of crucifying their Meffiab) than that Sin (viz. of Idolatry) for which principally the Ten Tribes were delivered to Captivity.

Anf. Though the Ten Tribes were fent into Captivity about 120 Years before the Two Tribes, yet their Captivity has not been fo long. For, as the temporal Punifhment of any Man ends with his Death, fo the Pu

nishment

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