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book_n	abandon_v	see_v	supplication_n	12	3	11.1164	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23828	The judgement of the ancient Jewish church, against the Unitarians in the controversy upon the holy Trinity, and the divinity of our Blessed Saviour : with A table of matters, and A table of texts of scriptures occasionally explain'd / by a divine of the Church of England.	Allix, Pierre, 1641-1717.	1699 (1699)	Wing A1224; ESTC R23458	269,255	502

one compare Job xxviii 20. Psal xxxiii 6. Prov. viii 12 22. with what is written Wisdom vi 24 22. and so on till Chap. viii 11. and he will find a great likeness if not the very same Notions and words 4. Through the same neglect they have quite lost the Works of other ancient and famous Jews as namely of Philo the Jew who was in such reputation amongst them as to be chosen the Agent or Deputy of the Alexandrian Jews in their Embassy to the Roman Emperour and of Aristobulus who lived in the time of the Ptolomees and Dedicated to one of them his Explication of the Law of which we have a fragment in Eusebius which shews that his Notions were the same with Philo's and that they did generally prevail in Egypt before Christ's Incarnation as well in the time of Philo. It is no hard matter to give some reasons of this neglect For 1. their first destruction by Titus and after by Hadrian involved with it a great part of their Books They thought then only of saving their Bibles with which it seems their Targum was joined and so this came to be preserved with the Scriptures This was by the great care of Josephus as he himself relates desiring of Titus this favour alone that he might preserve the Sacred Books 2. After their second destruction by Hadrian they applied themselves straight to gather their Traditions and Customs which now make the Body of their Misna or Second Law as they call it This spent them a deal of time For to compose such a work it was necessary to collect the several pieces in the hands of several men who had drawn certain Memoirs for the observation of every Law that did more immediately concern them 3. They then began to increase their hatred for the study of the Greek Tongue abandoning themselves wholly to the study of their Traditions This we see in the Misna Mas sota c. 9. § 14. 4. About this time being pressed with Arguments out of these Books by the Christians that disputed against them they thought best to reject the Works themselves And because the Christians used the LXX Version against them they invented several Lyes to discredit it as we see in the Gemara of Megilla and lest that should not do they made it their business to find out some that were able to make a new Version such as Aquila in the time of Hadrian and Symmachus and Theodotion who turn'd Jews toward the end of the Second Century These Three Interpreters were designed to change the Sense of those Texts which the Christians according to the Old Jewish Traditions did refer to the Messias Of this Justin Martyr has given some Instances in his Dialogue with Trypho R. Akiba's great Friend and we see that St. Jerom Ep. 89. complains of the same And now what wonder is it if the Jews in this humour did neglect or rather rejected those Apocryphal Books whose Authority in some points were set up against them by the Christians as were the Books of Baruch Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus As for Philo tho he wrote in a lofty Stile and after an Allegorical way and therefore we find in the Rabboth several Thoughts common to him and the Cabalists and other Allegorical Authors whose Notions are gathered in the Rabboth yet the Jews soon lost all esteem for his Works First Because he writ in Greek which was a Language most despised by them at this time they having establish'd it as a Maxim That he who brought up his Children in the Greek Tongue was cursed as he who fed Swine Bava kama fol. 82. col 1. Sota fol. 49. col 2. Secondly Because some Christians challenged him for their own For finding some of his Principles to be agreeable to those of the Christian Religion it came into their head tho it is a Fancy without any Foundation that he while he was at Rome was converted by St. Peter The same thing befel Josephus as soon as the Christians began to use his Authority against the Jews notwithstanding that the Jews have no better Historian than Josephus Thirdly Because the Jews had then almost forsaken the study of the Holy Scriptures and given themselves up entirely to the study of their Traditions or Second Law as they call it The Catalogue of their Ancient Commentators is very small Their first literal Commentator is R. Saadiah who writ his Comments on the Scripture in the beginning of the Tenth Century As for the others that were long before him as Zohar Siphre and Siphri Siphra Mechilta Tanchuma and the Rabboth they all make it their business to explain allegorically or to establish their Traditions As to the Targum we see how heat of Dispute hath carried the Jews to such strange extremities that now they reject no small part of those Interpretations that were Authentick with their Forefathers It may not be amiss to give some Proofs of this to shew that we do not accuse them without cause And in general there is not a more idle Romance than that which the Jews have devised touching two Messias's that are to come unto the World One must be of the Race of Joseph by Ephraim and called Nehemiah the Son of Husiel who as they will have it after a Reign of many Years at Jerusalem and after having sack'd Rome is at last to be killed himself at Jerusalem by a King of Persia The other Messias is to be Menahem the Son of Hammiel who is to appear for the delivery of the Jews being sent from God on that Errand according to Moses's Prayer Exod. iv 13. For the time of this second Messias's coming shall be when the Mother of the deceased Messias the Son of Joseph having gathered the Jews dispersed from Galilee to Jerusalem shall be there besieged by one Armillus the Son of Satan who is to proceed out of a Marble Statue in Rome and who in this close Siege shall be at the very point of destroying them Then they say Messias the Son of David shall come with seven Shepherds to wit the Three Patriarchs Moses David and Elias and eight of the principal Fathers or Prophets who are to rise before the rest They say That Moses at the head of them shall convert the Jews without working any Miracle and then all the Jews shall rise at the sound of a Trumpet passing under ground till they come to Mount Olivet which shall cleave in two to let them out Then the Jews shall come from all Quarters to form the Messias's Army and the Messias the Son of Joseph shall be raised from the dead to come in among the rest and so the two Messias's shall reign without jealousy of one another only the Son of David shall have the chief Power reigning from one end of the Earth to the other and that for Forty Years All this time the Jews shall continue in Feasting and Jollity using the other Nations as Slaves And then Gog the King of

careful to defend their own prejudices than the Opinions of the Ancients II. Another Objection is made from the place in Rev. i. 4. the words are these John to the seven Churches that are in Asia Grace be to you and peace from him that was and is and is to come and from the seven Spirits that are before his Throne and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness c. For John here seems to wish and pray for Grace not only from the Father but also from the Seven Angels that are before the Throne of God and so to be reckoned among the Ministring Spirits This place is indeed abused by those of the Romish Church to shew that Prayers may be lawfully directed to Angels And the Jews themselves have contributed to lead some Men of Note into the mistake For besides the four chief Angels whom they make to preside over the four Armies of Angels which they have chiefly grounded on Ezek. i. they speak of seven other Angels that were created before the rest and that wait on God before the Vail R. Eliezer in capit c. 4. that divides them from the Shechinah The hearing of these things so often repeated by the Jews has given occasion I say to some considerable Divines to believe those seven to be proper Angels whom St. John mentions in his Revelation But then not apprehending how Prayers could be offered to them nor why the precedency is given them before Christ they would not have John here to have spoken a Prayer but only to have wisht Grace on the Seven Churches and this they thought a sense consistent enough with the Angel-worship forbidden by St. Paul Col. ii 18. and even in this very Book Revel xix 10. xxii 9. But to shorten this matter I altogether deny that St. John intended here any created Angels What then did he mean by them Nothing else but the Holy Spirit for whose most perfect Power and Grace on the Seven Churches he here makes Supplication For as Cyril on Zech. iii. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Number seven is always a mark of Perfection in the thing to which it is applied St. John therefore thought of no allusion to the Jewish opinion of seven Angels when he prayed for Grace from the Seven Spirits before the Throne but had in his mind to express the far more plentiful effusion and more powerful efficacy of the Holy Spirit under the Gospel than under the Law and his never ceasing Ministration for the good of the Church for which purposes he hath received a Vicarious authority under God immediately to Christ as Tertullian speaks de Praesc Haeret. c. 13. and for this Interpretation I have Justin Martyr Paraen ad Graec. and St. Austin on my side St. John's way of expressing himself is borrowed from Zech. iii. 9. where God is represented as having seven Eyes running through the Earth to signifie by this Figure God's perfect knowledge of all things as Cyril Alexandrinus Notes Hence we read of Christ Revel iii. 1. These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God And in another place seven Eyes and seven Horns are ascribed to him But we never read which is worth our observation of these seven Spirits as we do of the four Beasts and twenty-four Elders that they fell down and Worshipped God But why does St. John put the Holy Spirit before Christ If I should say St. Paul has done the like in Gal. i. 1. and Ephes v. 5. to teach us the unity and equality of each Person in the Blessed Trinity or because St. John in the following Verses was to speak more at large of Christ I think I should not answer improperly But I shall add another reason which may explain the whole matter In a word I do believe this difficulty must be resolved another way for that which makes this place so intricate according to the judgment of many Interpreters is their referring to the Father the words of the 4th verse Grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which was and which is to come which ought to be referred particularly to Christ himself who is described Chap. iv v. 8. according to the description of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Jonathan's Targum on Deut. xxxii 39. But then some will say Why is there any mention made of the seven Spirits if we conceive that the Grace which is asked for the Church in the first words is asked from Jesus Christ The thing is so clear that Socinus has perceiv'd it Now seven Spirits are here mentioned to denote the Spirit of God which was to reside with his sevenfold Gifts in the Messias according to the Prophecy of Isaiah ch xi 2 3. and from thence it comes that in Revel ch v. 6. the Lamb is described having seven Horns and seven Eyes which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the Earth To Christ there are attributed seven Horns which denote his Empire in opposition to the Empire of the little Horn which is spoken of Dan. vii 8. So there are seven Eyes which are the seven Spirits of God attributed to him likewise to denote the Gracious Providence of Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost and that in opposition to the little Horn in which there were Eyes Like the Eyes of man Da● vii 〈…〉 Here then the Grace asked is from the seven Spirits that is from the Holy Ghost who is united in one with the Messias Jesus Christ and is sent by him and so it is said to be asked from Jesus Christ himself who both has those Spirits as his Eyes and does cause the Mission of them to his Church St. John therefore doth not place the Holy Spirit before Christ but mentions him with Christ because he after Christ's Ascension and during the time of Christ's continuance on God's right hand has a more particular hand in the immediate Government of the Church and is especially watchful to do her good And for this reason I think it is the Holy Spirit is placed as it were without the Veil like a Ministring Angel Many of the Ancients knew this as Victorinus Petavionensis Ambrose Beda Arethas Autpertus Walafridus Strabo Haymo Rupertus from whom Tho. Aquinas and Caelius of Pannonia who rebukes those that understand it otherwise and other Elder Divines of the Roman Church learnt it to say nothing of those of the Reformed Church But it is time to give over A TABLE OF TEXTS of Scripture Occasionally Explained in this Treatise GENESIS Chap. Ver. Pag. i. 1 116 119 123 142   2 141   26 101 117 320 323 400 414 iii. 5 118   8 370   15 401   22 42 118 320 iv 7 118   8 21 vi 3 141 ix 7 142 xi 7 118 323 xv 1 5 9 370 xviii 1 2 3 147   18 35   20 21 443 xix   401   24 323 xxi 9 61 xxv 7 118 xxx 24