David by the same Inspiration in many Psalms celebrates the Kingdom of the Messiah In Psal. 22. he is introduc'd speaking My praise shall be of thee in the great Congregation all the ends of the World shall remember and turn unto the Lord all the kindreds of the Nations shall worship before thee And in the 67 Psal. God be merciful to us and blessus and cause his Face to shine upon us Selah That thy way may be known upon Earth and thy saving health among all Nations Let the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee The Prophet Esay in his Revelations clearly speaks of the great design of God to bring the Gentiles to his service Thus in the second Chapter 't is prophesied And it shall come to pass in the last days that the Mountain of the Lords House shall be established in the tops of the Mountains and shall be exalted above the Hills And many People shall go and say Come ye let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the House of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the Lord and the Sword of the Lord out of Jerusalem And among all the rest none is more clear and express than what is recorded in Isa. 49. There first the Messiah is represented as declaring his Commission from God to go to the People of Israel The Lord hath called me from the womb from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my Name and he said unto me Thou art my Servant in whom I will be glorified And after complains of the obstinacy of the ingrateful Synagogue Then I said I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought in vain yet surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work with God And immediately after 't is added And now saith the Lord that form'd me from the Womb to be his Servant to bring Jacob again to him though Israel be not gather'd yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord and my God shall be my strength And he said it is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the Tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou maist be my Salvation to the ends of the Earth This Oracle is precise and full for it speaks of the Nations in opposition to the Tribes of Israel and directly foretels that the Jews would neglect the instructions of the Messiah and that upon their Infidelity God would by the Messiah give saving knowledge to all Nations And in the same sense he speaks in the 54th Chapter Sing O Barren thou that didst not bear break forth into singing and cry aloud thou that didst not travel with Child for more are the Children of the desolate than of the married saith the Lord. Who is the desolate and barren but the Gentiles without God in the World whiles the Jews were honour'd and blest in the Mystical Marriage with him And who are the Children of the forsaken that should be far more numerous than those of the married but the Believers of the Christian Church in opposition to the Jewish Church And the other succeeding Prophets concur in this prediction Malachy the last speaks of it in such express terms as are capable to convince any that does not wilfully renounce the use of his Eyes and Understanding After God is introduc'd rejecting the Jews and their Temple Service I have no pleasure in you saith the Lord of Hosts neither will I accept an Offering at your hands He adds to signifie the calling of a new Church for from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place Incense shall be offer'd to my Name and a pure Offering for my Name shall be great among the Heathen saith the Lord of Hosts Thus that great wonder was clearly foretold by the Prophets and as a work to be performed by the glorious Power of God And accordingly it is accomplish'd For who but God could have inspir'd the Apostles to undertake an Enterprise so contrary to Humane Prudence being equally dangerous and impossible And who else could have made it successful beyond all imagination When the Pride of Pharoah was humbled and his Strength broken by the most despicable creatures even the Magicians were compelled to acknowledge it to be the Finger of God but his Arm was revealed when the Spiritual Pharoah with all his Powers of Darkness were overcome by such weak Instruments What furious Winds from all parts of the World conspir'd to extinguish the first springing Light of the Gospel The Heathen Emperours destroyed innumerable Persons presuming to drown the Memory of Christ in the Blood of the Christians But such were the Faith and Love of Believers of all conditions to their Crucified Redeemer that with the same joy they ran to suffer the most terrible punishments as if they had been to receive Crowns In vain the strongest Combinations were made against the Truth For the knowledge of the only true God and his incarnate Son Jesus Christ overcame Impiety with all its Idols and Ignorance with all its numerous Masters What is become of all the Heathen Deities so honour'd so fear'd so obstinately defended Where are their Altars their Statues their Sacrilegious Priests and Sacrifices They are buried in the ruines of their own Temples in the darkness of eternal oblivion Where are all the Sects of Philosophers the Platonists the Peripateticks the Stoicks the Epicureans and the rest that fill'd Greece with their Fame and so many Volumes with their Fancies and Errour Like a Torrent that rouls down with great noise from the top of a Mountain so for a time the Speculations of their lofty Minds poured along in a floud of swelling froathy Eloquence but now and for how many Ages since the very channel is dryed up wherein they ran so that scarce any visible ruines remain in Athens it self of the Schools where they taught The greatest among them Plato adorn'd with the title of Divine could never see his Commonwealth fram'd by him with so much study to be establish'd in one City Whereas if we consider the Gospel of Christ 't is hard to determine whether the Doctrine be more simple or the Apostles the first Masters of it to outward appearance Yet without Learning or humane strength in a short space they triumphed over the Eloquence of the Greeks the Power of the Romans the Rage of Barbarous Nations They abrogated Laws chang'd Customs and renewed the face of the World In this the Prophetick Parable was fulfill'd The Kingdom of Heaven that is the dispensation of the Gospel is like to a grain of Mustard-seed one of the smallest grains but of that spirit and quality that it suddenly springs up and
Beasts and creeping things This was the state of the Pagan World till the Gospel appear'd and directed the natural religious inclination of mankind into its proper channel to the only true God 2. The Religion of the Jews is to be considered This the Christians acknowledg with them was Divine in its Authority Doctrine Moral part Worship and Promises God himself was the Author and confirm'd it by many illustrious Miracles 'T is deliver'd in the most antient authentick and venerable Writings in the World It instructs us concerning the Nature of God his Works of Creation and Providence and the Judgment to come It commands the love of God and to serve him only and the love of our Neighbour as our selves The ceremonial part was a full conviction of the guilt of Sin a visible discovery of the rights of eternal Justice and a powerful means to humble Men before the Infinite and offended Majesty of the Creator It propounds temporal rewards as the marks of Gods favour sutable to the Church then in its minority but under that Vaile the most excellent and eternal rewards This Religion in its Ceremonial external part was to continue till the coming of the Messiah and then to be abolish'd To make this evident I shall thus proceed 1. That the ceremonial part contain'd nothing that was morally and unchangeably good for then it had been obligatory to all Nations and from the beginning whereas it was prescribed only to the Jews and after a long space of time wherein many holy Men though ignorant of that part of the Law yet received a Divine testimony that they pleased God 2. 'T was of impossible performance to all other Nations as appears by the Precepts concerning Sacrifices that were to be offered only in Jerusalem and by the Levitical Priests and their solemn Festivals so many times in the Year Now the Worship of God being an essential Duty of the reasonable Creature 't is absurd to imagine that it necessarily consists in such things that cannot be done by all Men. 3. God himself often declar'd that the Rituals of the Law were of no price with him absolutely consider'd 4. They were enjoynd the Jews for peculiar reasons principally that by those imperfect rudiments they might be prepar'd for the times of Reformation God had drawn in the Legal Ministration numberless Images of the Messiah their Temple and High-Priest their Ark and Offerings with all their Ceremonial Service did signally point at him And this is a ninfallible evidence that a mind superiour to Moses's design'd all that Work with a final respect to Christ that the Jewish Nation having the Idea of him always present might not mistake him when he should appear And that heavy yoke of Ceremonies with the spirit of servile fear that attended it was to excite in them earnest longings after the Messiah the Desire of all Nations that with unspeakable joy they might receive him at his coming Now that the Legal Institution should expire for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof and a Divine Sacrifice be offer'd up of infinite value and vertue to reconcile God and purifie the Consciences of Men was declared whilst the service of the Temple was perform'd with the greatest Pomp. Thus the Messiah spake by the mouth of David Sacrifice and offering thou dost not desire my heart hast thou open'd Burnt-offering and Sin-offering hast thou not required then said I lo I come in the volume of the Book 't is written of me I delight to do thy will O my God And the same inspired Prophet declar'd when the Levitical Priesthood was in the greatest splendour that there was another order of Priesthood than that of Aaron established in a more solemn manner and of everlasting efficacy The Lord hath sworn and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec That this Prophecy respected the Messiah even the Pharisees could not deny For when Jesus Christ askt them whose Son Christ was to be they answered Davids And demanding again why David call'd him Lord in those words of the Psalms The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand till I have made thine enemies thy foot-stool they could answer nothing Their silence was a clear acknowledgment that the Messiah was the Person there intended The Apostle also who wrote to the Jews takes it for granted by the universal consent of that Nation that that Psalm respected the Messiah and proves it was accomplish'd in Jesus Christ. Besides 't was foretold by the Prophet Jeremiah that another Covenant should be made wherein the real benefits of the pardon of Sin and true Holiness that were tipified by the Legal purifications and observances should be conferred on God's People Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the House of Israel different from that made with their Fathers when they came out of the Land of Aegypt I will put my Law into their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my People And they shall no more teach every Man his Neighbour and every Man his Brother saying Know the Lord for they shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquities and I will remember their sin no more In short there are abundant Declarations in the Prophets that the carnal Religion of the Jews should expire and a Religion all Spirit and Life should succeed in its place and be diffused among all Nations This was to be introduc'd by the Messiah Thus Moses foretold The Lord thy God shall raise up a Prophet from among thy Brethren like unto me Him ye shall hear 'T was the singular prerogative of Moses above the rest of the Prophets that he was a Lawgiver and Mediatour of the Covenant between God and Israel and accordingly the Messiah was to be a Lawgiver and Mediatour of a new Covenant Now if the Mosaic Institutions were to remain after his coming the Parallel would not hold between them in those principal respects Besides 't was prophesied that the Messiah should be a King sitting on the Throne of David and commanding the Kings of the Earth By which 't is evident that his Laws must be of another nature than those of Moses that were proper only to the Church whilst confin'd to the Jewish pale but not for the government of the World And whereas the Jews object that some of their Rites were ordain'd to continue for ever The answer is clear That was only to distinguish them from some temporary injunctions that were of force only while they were in the Wilderness or when they were inhabitants of Canaan but were to be practis'd in all places till by a new signification of the Divine Will they were forbidden And 't is observable that in the Jewish Law the term for ever when applied either to a Mans right or
Punishment God has taken away all the marks of his Alliance with them No distinction of their Tribes remain no observance of their legal Ceremonies no Priests no Altars no Sacrifices no Prophets nor Miracles in short there is no true Worship among them no God but angry and revenging their bloody impieties And which is most worthy of consideration the Romans that conquer'd them have lost their Empire and the Nations which were subdued by their Arms have recovered their Liberty But the Jews after sixteen hundred years are still miserable Now is not this Judgment of God upon them a dreadful proof of the extremity of their Wickedness in crucifying JESUS CHRIST and that consequently he was as he declar'd himself to be the Son of God and that his Office and Doctrine were from Heaven Never before did the Wrath of God break forth in such a fierce manner against a sinful Nation Therefore 't is represented under the Image of the final Doom when Justice arm'd with flames shall devour the Ungodly and the whole World become a Theatre of Terrors And never was any other Nation guilty of such an high provocation for the Son of God descended but once among Men to be personally crucified The singularity of the punishment is a visible instructive sign of their transcendent Crime Immediately upon their pronouncing the capital Sentence against him on Earth their utter Ruine was pronounc'd in Heaven And the execution of the Sentence was deferr'd no longer but till the Elect of that People were brought in and by the Preaching and excellent Miracles of the Apostles the Resurrection of Christ and the truth of the Gospel were confirm'd and thereby a beginning and form given to the new Christian Church Now they have written on their foreheads in very legible characters the Fatal Curse which their Fathers pronounc'd concerning Jesus Christ His Blood be on Us and our Children When with indignation for their Idolatry broke the Tables of the Law God reestablish'd them but when for a greater guilt God himself broke them there is no possible Redintegration If it be said that 't is not necessary to attribute this Ruine of the Jews to the particular Vengeance of God but only to the Instability of humane things wherein such disastrous Revolutions sometimes happen I answer That although Divine Justice was so visible in their astonishing Destruction that Titus himself refus'd a Triumphal-Crown after his compleat Victory declaring that he was but the Instrument of God's Anger who was the Invisible Emperor in that bloody Expedition yet to force an acknowledgment of it from all that are not wilfully blind it was foretold when the Jews were in peace and their killing the Messiah specified as the Meritorious Cause wherein that terrible Effect was included Thus our Saviour in the Parable of the Husbandmen and Vineyard after they had put to death the Master's Son he adds What shall therefore the Lord of the Vineyard do He will come and destroy the Husbandmen and give the Vineyard to others And upon his drawing near to the City of Jerusalem he wept over it saying If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes For the days shall come upon thee that thine Enemies shall cast a Trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side and shall lay thee even with the Ground and shall not leave in thee one stone upon another because thou knewest not the time of thy Visitation This was also foretold by Moses in all the terrible Circumstances The Lord shall bring a Nation against thee from far from the end of the Earth as swift as the Eagle flyeth a Nation whose Tongue thou shalt not understand a Nation of fierce countenance which shall not regard the person of the old nor shew favour to the young and he shall eat the fruit of thy Cattel and the fruit of thy Land until thou be destroyed which also shall not leave thee either Corn Wine or Oyl or the encrease of thy Kine or flocks of thy Sheep until he have destroyed thee And he shall besiege thee in all thy Gates throughout all thy Land which the Lord thy God hath given thee in the Siege and in the straitness wherewith thine Enemies shall distress thee Such was the Threatning and the Event was correspondent in all the degrees of misery Which as it demonstrates the truth of the Prophecy so it may instruct us how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God 3. The converting of the Gentile World to the saving Knowledg of God by the Messiah was foretold in the Scriptures The beams of this glorious Truth were gradually dispens'd to the Israelites as their weak understandings could sustain it When the Covenant was made with Abraham God declared in express terms In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the World be blessed That Seed was the Messiah not the people of the Jews descended from Abraham for they were so far from being a universal Blessing to the World that on the contrary they vainly presum'd that God for their sakes despis'd the rest of Mankind And indeed before the coming of Christ they were an inclosed Garden the peculiar People of God and without the compass of Judea Sin reign'd absolutely and universally Now that Promise clearly signifies that the Favour and Blessing of God that he conferr'd upon Abraham in making known to him his Will and promising to be his God and of his Posterity should one day be extended to all Nations by calling them to his Knowledg and Service To this agrees the Prophesie of Jacob The Scepter shall not depart from Juda nor the Law-giver from between his feet till Shilo come and to him shall the gathering of the People be that is the Gentiles shall be converted from their Idols to the true God by the Messiah whom the Jews acknowledg to be signified by that Title And Moses introduces God as complaining of the Idolatry and Ingratitude of the Jews and declaring They have moved me to jealousie with that which is not God they have provoked me to anger with their vanities and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a People and I will provoke them to anger with a foolish Nation The external Covenant between God and his People is represented by the union of Marriage to signifie the Duty they owe to God the highest honour the most ardent affections and the benefits they receive from him Therefore when the Jews gave Divine Adoration the highest respects of Religion to Idols they provok'd God to jealousy and he threatens he would break his Alliance with them and give his Heart and Love to those which were not a People And by the Law of Counter-Passion they should be provok'd to Jealousy 'T is very visible these expressions signify the calling of the Gentiles And