Proving Jesus of Nazareth to be the only true and promised Messiah.

1. Jesus whom Paul preached, the true Messiah. § 2, 3. First argument from the time of his coming. Foundation of this argument unquestionable. § 4. Coming of Jesus at the time appointed, proved by Scripture, record, and catholie tradition. § 5. By the testimonies of heathen wri. ters. 6. By the confession of the Talmudical Jews. Jesus Christ intended by them, in their story of Jesus the son of Pandira and Stada. 7. No other came at that season, by them owned. § 8. Force of this argument. 9. Characteristical notes of the Messiah given out in the Old Testament. § 10. His family, stock or lineage, confined unto the posterity of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David. § 11. Our Lord Jesus' of the posterity of Abraham, and tribe of Judah, also of the family of David. Testimonies of the evangelists vindicated. § 12. Jewish excep tions in general answered. § 13. În particular, the genealogy not proved; answered. 14. The genealogy of Matthew declared, § 15, 16. and of Luke. § 17. The place of the birth of the Messiah, Bethlehem, Micah v. 2. 18. Circumstances enforcing this consideration. § 19. The evangelist's citation of the words of the prophet vindicated. §20. The Messiah to be born of a virgin, Isa. vii. 10, 11. and Matt. i. 21, 22. § 21. Jews convinced that Jesus was born of a virgin. 22. Jewish exceptions to the application of this prophecy. Their weight. § 23. The answer of some to them; unsafe, needless. § 24, 25. True sense of the words. Exceptions answered. § 26-28. The signification and use of y. Greatness of the sign promised. § 29, 30. No other Virgin and Son designed but Jesus Christ and his mother. The prophecy clear. ed in this instance. § 31. In what sense the birth of the Messiah was a signof present deliverance. § 32, 33. Remaining objections answered. § 34. Other characters of the Messiah. § 35. He was to be a prophet, Deut. xviii. 19. a prophet like unto Moses. Expected by the Jews. § 36. Jesus Christ a prophet. That prophet. § 37. The nature of the doctrine which he taught. Its perfection. § 38. The works of the Messiah revealed only in the gospel of Christ. § 39. Also the nature and end of Mosaic institutions. §40. Threatenings unto the disobedient, fallen upon the Jews. 41. Sufferings are another character of the Messiah. § 42. His passion foretold, Psal. xxii. The true Messiah therein intended. Expositions of Kimchi and others confuted. § 43. Sufferings peculiar unto the Messiah. § 44. The Psalm exactly fulfilled in Jesus Christ. § 45. Objections of the Jews from the principles of Christians, answered. § 46. Isa. liii. Prophecy of the suffering of the Messiah. §47. Consent of the ancient Jews. Targum, Bereshith Rabba, Talmud, Ashech. 48-53. Invalidity of exceptions of latter rabbins. Application to the Lord Jesus vindicated. § 54. Other testimonies concerning the sufferings of the Messiah. 55. Jewish traditions to the same purpose. $50. Other arguments proving Jesus to be the true Messiah. § 57. Mi

racles. 58. The nature of them, § 59. wrought by Christ, proved. § 60. Testimony of the gospel. § 61. Notoriety of tradition. 62. Miracles of Christ compared with those of Moses. § 63. Excelling them in number; § 64. in manner of their being wrought; § 65. in their nature; 66. in his giving power to others to effect them; § 67. in his resurrection from the dead; § 68. continuance of them in the world. § 69. Sum of the argument. § 70, 71. Conviction of the Jews evinced. $72,73. Causes of the miracles of Christ assigned by them. Magical art, retorted, removed. § 74. The name of God. § 75. Testimonies of his disciples. 76. Success of the doctrine of Jesus. Last argument.

§ 1. THE third branch of that great supposition and funda

mental article of faith, on which the apostle builds his arguments and reasonings with the Hebrews is, that Jesus whom he preached was the true and only promised Messiah, who came forth from God for the accomplishment of his work; at the time which had been determined and foretold. The confirmation of this foundation of our faith, and profession, is that which now in the third place we must engage in. This is a subject on which I could insist at large, with much satisfaction to myself, nor have I just cause to fear, that the matter treated of, would be irksome to any Christian reader. But we must have respect unto our present design, for it is not absolutely and of set purpose, that we handle these things, but merely with reference to that further end of opening the springs of the apostle's divine reasonings in this epistle, and therefore we must contract as much as may be the arguments that we have to plead in this case. And yet nei

ther can this be so done, but that some continuance of discourse will be unavoidably necessary. And the course which we shall adopt, is the same which we have followed in our foregoing demonstrations of the promise of the Messiah, and of his coming. Our arguments are first to be produced, and vindicated from the particular objections of the Jews, and then their opposition to our thesis in general, is to be removed, referring an answer to their special objections unto another dissertation.

§ 2. That our present discourse may follow the foregoing in a natural order, our first argument shall be taken from that which is proved, and confirmed therein; namely, the time limited and determined for the coming of the Messiah. Two ways there are, whereby the time fore-appointed of God for the coming of the Messiah, is signified and made known. First, By certain Txungia, or evident tokens, taken from the Judaical church, with the state and condition of the whole people of the Jews. This we have insisted on from Gen. xlix. 10. Hag. ii. 8. Mal. iii. 1, 2. Secondly, By a computation of the time itself as to its duration, from a certain fixed date unto its expiration. This way we have unfolded and vindicated at large,

from Dan. ix. 24-27. And although we have evidenced the truth and exactness of the computation insisted on by us, as far as any chronological accounts of times past are capable of being demonstrated, yet we have also manifested, that our argument depends not on the precise bounding of the time limited; but lying whart, is of equal force, however the computation be calculated, the whole time limited being undeniably expired before, or at the destruction of the city and temple. Hence is the foundation of our first argument. Before or at the expiration of that time the promised Messiah was to come. Before, or at that time, (as denoted and described by the general Tgre, or evident tokens before mentioned, and limited by the computation insisted on,) Jesus came, and no other that the Jews can or do pretend to have been the Messiah; and therefore he was the true promised Messiah.

§3. The foundation of this argument, namely, that the Messiah was to come within the time limited and foretold, cannot be shaken, without calling in question the truth of all promises and predictions in the Old Testament, and consequently the faithfulness and power of God. The great design of the Old Testament is to reveal the Messiah, the Saviour of the world. This design is manifested from the first, and it is prosecuted through the whole record. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit that enlivens the whole doctrine and history of it. It is the bond of union, and it is the centre in which all the parts of it do meet, and without which they would be loose, scattered and deformed heaps. Without an apprehension of this design, and faith therein, not a letter of it can be understood, nor can a rational man discover any important excellency in it. Him it promiseth, him it typifieth, him it teacheth, and prophesieth about; him it calls men to desire and expect. When it hath done this in several places, it expressly limits, foretels and declares, the time wherein he shall be sent and exhibited. If there be a failure herein, (seeing it is done to give evidence to all other things that are spoken concerning him, by which they are to be tried, and to stand or fall, as they receive support or are discountenanced by it) to what end should any man trouble himself, about that which is cast, as a fancy and empty imagi nation, by its own verdict? If then the Messiah came not within the time limited, all expectation from the Scriptures of the Old Testament must come to nought; which those, with whom at present we contend, will not grant.

Nor can the Jews on such a supposition, in any measure defend the truth of the Scriptures against an infidel. For unto his inquiry, where is the promised Messiah? if they shall plead their usual pretences, it is easy for him to reply, that these things being no where mentioned, nor intimated in the books

themselves, they are only such subterfuges as any man may palliate the most open untruths withal. And indeed, the ridiculous figment of his being born at the time appointed, but kept hid to this day, they know not where, is not to be pleaded, when they deal with men not bereft of their senses, or judicially blinded by God. For besides, that the whole of it is a childish fiction, inconsistent with the nature and being of their Messiah, whom they make to be a mere man subject to mortality, in his whole person like all the other sons of Adam, it suits not at all unto the difficulty intended to be removed by it. For it is not his being born only, but also his accomplishment of his work and office at the time determined, which is foretold. Nor is there any øne jot more of probability in their other pretence, about their own sins and unworthiness. For, as we have declared, this is nothing but in plain terms to assert, that God hath violated his faith and promise; and that in a matter, wherein the great concern of his own glory, and the welfare of all mankind doth consist, on account of their miscarriages, which as they either cannot, or will not remedy, so he himself hath not, (though he might have so done) provided any relief against them. This then stands upon equal evidence with the whole authority of the Old Testament, namely, that the promised Messiah was to come within the time prefixed for his coming, and foretold.

We ask them then, If Jesus of Nazareth be not the Messiah, where is he? or who is he that came in answer to the prophecies insisted on? Two things then remain to be proved. First, That our Lord Jesus Christ came, lived, and died within the time limited for the coming of the Messiah. Secondly, That no other came within that season, that either pretended with any colour of probability unto that dignity, or was ever as such owned or esteemed by the Jews themselves.

§ 4. First then, that Jesus came and lived in the time fixed for the coming of the Messiah, that is, some short time before the departure of sceptre and scribe from Judah, the ceasing of the daily sacrifice, and the final desolation of the second temple, we have all the evidence, that a matter of fact which happened so long ago is capable of, evidence as good as that the world was of old created by God. The histories of the church are express in affirming that he was born during the reign of Augustus Cæsar, and in the latter end of that of Herod over Judea, when Cyrenius was governor over Syria; that he lived unto the time when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea under Tiberius, about thirty-six or thirty-seven years before the destruction of the Jewish nation, city and temple by Titus. This the histories written by divine inspiration, and committed unto the care of the church, expressly affirm; neither have the Jews any thing to object against the truth of the relation, whatever may be

their thoughts of his person, or of what he did. That he lived and died then, and there, is left on record beyond dispute. And if they should deny it, what is the bare negation of a few interested, blinded persons, without testimonies or evidence from any one circumstance of times, persons or actions, when laid in the balance against the catholic tradition of all the world, whether believing in Jesus, or rejecting of him. For they all have always agreed in this, that he lived, and died at the time mentioned in the sacred stories.

And this was still one part of the charge brought against his followers, in the very next age after, that they believed in a person whom they knew to have lived at such a season, and in a mean condition. Neither did the most malicious and fierce opposers of the religion taught by him, such as Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian, ever once attempt to attack the truth of the story, as to his real existence, and as to the time of it. So that in this we have as concurrent a suffrage as the whole world in any case is able to afford.

5. The best historians of the nations, who lived near those times, give their testimony unto what is recorded in our gospel. The words of one of them, a person of unquestionable credit, in things that he could attain the knowledge of, and as it will appear by them, far enough from any compliance with the followers of Jesus, may suffice for an instance. This is Cornelius Tacitus, in the fifteenth of his Annals; Abolendo (saith he) rumori (he speaks of Nero and of his burning Rome) subdidit reos, et quæsitissimis pœnis affecit, quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Christianos appellebat. Author ejus nominis Christus qui Tiberio imperitante per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus erat. He expressly assigns the time of the death of Christ unto the reign of Tiberius, and government of Pilate. The same also is confirmed by Flavius Josephus the Jewish historian, in the fourth chapter of the eighteenth book of their antiquities; to which season also he assigns the death of John the Baptist, who was his co-temporary, according to the evangelical story.

§ 6. Further, we have that testimony in this matter, which though in itself it be of little or no moment, yet as to them with whom we have to do, is cogent above all others; and this is their own confession. They acknowledge in the Talmud, that he lived before the desolation of the second temple, for they tell us, cap. Cheleck, and -cap. 2. that he was the son of Pandira and Stada, and that he lived in the days of the Maccabees, Alexander, Hircanus, and Aristobulus, under whom he was crucified. I confess Galatinus, Reuchlinus, and of late the learned Schiklard, with some others, do contend that it is not Jesus Christ whom they intend, in the wicked story which they tell of that Jesus the son of Pandira. But the reasons which