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A26654
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God's covenant displayed by John Alexander, a converted Jew ; with a proĊmial discourse of the reasons of his conversion.
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Alexander, John, Converted Jew.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing A914; ESTC R18631
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21,651
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38
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Licensed June 13. 1689. Z. Isham God's Covenant DISPLAYED BY John Alexander A CONVERTED JEW WITH A Prooemial Discourse OF THE REASONS OF HIS CONVERSION 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1689. TO THE Right Honourable Sir JOHN MAYNARD Chief Lord Commissioner for the Great Seal of England My Lord THis Book doth humbly present it self to your Honour as the First-fruits of my proficiency in Christ in a dress low and humble beseeming the Author Let others bring into the Tabernacle to borrow Hierom's words Prol. in lib. Reg. what they are able some Gold Silver and Gems others fine Silks Purple Scarlet and Jacynth 't is well with us if we can afford Skins and Hair of Goats However under this Veil is contained something of the hidden Wisdom amongst the perfect giving an insight to the Mystery of the Crucified JESVS As such be pleased to accept of it in token of sincere gratitude upon the score of so many benefits due to your Name by My Lord Your Lordship 's most dutiful and most humble Servant John Alexander God's Covenant DISPLAYED WITH A Prooemial Discourse ABOUT The Manner and Reasons of the Author's Conversion from Judaism to Christianity 'T IS not less certain That every Mortal strives to attain Happiness than morally known That notwithstanding the different Sentiments about the intrinsick nature all reasonable Creatures agree in the pursuit thereof To wish well to ones self is congenite in so much that Baseness it self is not cherished by the wicked unless under a notion of some good And though perhaps our Intellect cannot be inveagled so far as to deem a thing Moral which is contrary to it yet our blind Will upon a surmise of its being pleasant or advantagious embraces it for good under such or the like circumstances And if this Appetite be promiscuously found in reasonable Souls it must doubtless with an overplus display it self in such who being from their Youth educated above the vulgar sort by aid of their cultivation are furnished with means for â—â—â—â—cing into a critick search of a point on which dependeth Eternity thereby to rescue their Souls from all imminent danger and to make it a Candidate of the desired Beatitude due means in this as in all other cases proving often Motives for taking in hand what otherwise would lie dormant Therefore since my Parents Jews by Birth were willing to bestow cost and charges on my breeding after their way and the sedulity of my Teachers had brought me to the perfect view of their Doctrine and Traditions 't was no wonder that being in some measure accomplisht I used those means I had in finding out that object wherein our chief and only happiness doth reside And though I was formerly perswaded that this object was GOD yet seeing that he was sought for in divers ways and manners my Mind could not be at rest until I had search'd for the best Thus our Mind is of so infinite and restless an apprehension that after it hath attained the fruition of what constantly relisheth our fancy it is yet still appetent of more in so much that as the object never wants fresh glances of admiration so our Mind is never destitute of an eagerness for comprehending and possessing of whatever is admirable in it And there being three chief means now extant in the World which as by so many lines seem to tend to the same Center namely the Jewish the Christian and the Mahumetan perswasion I consequently presumed to dive into their several Truths and advantages What the Chair of Moses could afford therewith I was sufficiently acquainted and indeed thought my self to be in possession of Truth whether by prejudice or that the two abovementioned professions themselves did acknowledge God to be our Lawgiver In the Mahumetan Religion I could find nothing of sense or reason and Authority as little as both except wherein they agree in the Mosaick and Moral Law Especially I did want amongst them the fullfilling of Promises the chiefest Faith and Hope of Israel Thus looking back to the Christians where I perceived the fulfilling of Promises pretended as I then thought the assertion of a Messiah come the Covenant urged the holy Canon of Scripture received considering also their Doctrine Sobriety of Life and skill in all sort of Languages and Learning I was perswaded into a better belief of them than before My way therefore was first to compare Doctrine with Doctrine Predictions with Events and the nature of Promises with their being accomplished and then to make my Applications though hidden for fear of the Jews to some Divines by their assistance to be better informed in the concern of my Souls Salvation After sundry Conferences and Debates over-ruled by reason and evidence of Arguments by the cooperating Grace of GOD I at last did yield to Christian Truths and concluded within me that their Way waving the deplorable animosities which after a like manner I found to have been amongst the Jews of old was the surest means in order to the obtaining of a blessed End in consideration that GOD cannot be enjoyed as an end of our Happiness unless by what he is pleased to prescribe in his several Dispensations I. Whereupon in the first place I considered the Promises of GOD concerning the King MESSIAS by whom only we hope to be saved Psal 2. 12. his coming into the World. And here that notable passage of Gen. 49. 10. presented it self in the very Front 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rod or Scepter shall not depart from Juda nor the Lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come and to him shall the obedience of the people be And pray let any unbyassed Jew answer me they all agreeing that by this Shiloh is to be understod the Messiah When this Rod or Scepter because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth both and custom declares it to be so by the diversity of imperial Ensigns as the Scepter of Ahasuerus and the Roman fasces Rods departed from Juda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so called and then reduced to two Tribes and a half together with the Lawgiver if not at the coming of Jesus of Nazareth For Herod the Tetrarch of Galilee was a Gentile and the Roman Eagle the Ensign of that Nation had spread its Wings over all Judea according to the threatning Prediction Deut. 28. 49. in case of disobedience The LORD shall bring a Nation against thee from far from the end of the Earth flying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an Eagle a Nation whose Tongue thou shalt not understand thereby meaning the Romans for the Jews understood Syriack and Chaldaick and likewise Hebrew as in the case of Rabsheka who both over-ruled and utterly overthrew them in such a manner that Josephus their Chronologer can scarcely touch any notable passage in his History particularly in reference to Jerusalem's destruction the Metropolis of the Land and the Seat of the King and the