the power and evil effects of our sins I grant indeed he was mean and very poor And what then Was not the Jewish Law-giver Moses so also Was he not exposed to the waters forced to fly his Country and tend upon a flock in a foreign Country Was not Jacob the Father of the Jewish tribes a poor Syrian ready to perish had he any thing more than his staff when he went to Padan Aram Was not David from whom the Messias was to descend a keeper of his Father's Sheep If Jesus suffered and were put to death what then Have not these been the lot and portion of the most righteous men in the world Was not righteous Abel killed when wicked Cain lived and built a City Is it any blot upon the memory of David that he was persecuted of Zechariah that he was stoned of Isaiah that he was sawn in sunder Are the holy men and Prophets of old to be rejected because they suffered reproaches or were put to death Why should Jesus then be rejected because he was put to death This does not speak him an evil man The Jews very well know what the Psalmist says of the sufferings of God's own people Psal 79.1 2 3 4. O God the Heathen are come into thine inheritance thy holy Temple have they defiled they have laid Jerusalem on heaps The dead bodies of thy Servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the Heaven the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the earth Their bloud have they shed like water round about Jerusalem and there was none to bury them We are become a reproach to our neighbours a scorn and derision to them that are round about us These were indeed severe sufferings and upon whom did they light The Text informs us that they fell upon God's inheritance upon his servants and Saints And what ever reproach this were to the Heathen who inflicted these sufferings it is none at all to the Sufferers themselves In a word very excellent men among the Jews and the best among the Heathens were poor and suffered the greatest evils and no wife man ever thought the worse of these Sufferers and it is therefore very unjust to reject Jesus merely upon that account I add Secondly that it was foretold by God himself that the Messias should suffer I shall not give in all the particulars which make for this purpose That of Isaiah Chap. 53. is most clear and remarkable to my present purpose In that Chapter the sufferings or the Messias are graphically described And there never was any people or person to whom all those particulars recited in that Chapter could belong but to our blessed Saviour who is the Messias there foretold The Jews I mean the more ancient among them understood that place of the Messias and whereas among the later Jews we shall find some Interpret them to another sense whether of the people of Israel Josiah L'Empereur refutat Abravenel Comment in Isa c. 53. or some other person yet it is manifest and hath been made so that the words must be understood of the Messias and were never fulfilled by any people or any other person whatsoever To whom else can those words belong but to the Messias and in whom were they ever fulfilled but in our Jesus onely where it is said He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs For never was there a sorrow like that of our Jesus Where shall we find a person to whom the following words can belong He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed All we like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all And as these sufferings could be the sufferings of none but of the Messias onely so the patient bearing them must belong to him too and was remarkably accomplished in our Jesus He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a Sheep before her Shearers is dumb so he openeth not his mouth I may afterward have occasion to shew how remarkably the following words also were fulfilled in our Jesus as they were foretold of the Messias where 't is said that he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death In the first promise of the Messias it was intimated that he should suffer it being predicted that the Serpent's seed should bruise the heel of the seed of the Woman Gen. 3.15 I might to this purpose shew at large from the Old Testament that the Messias was to suffer Those persons who were the most Eminent Types of him were very great sufferers And though all the sacrifices were slain yet those sacrifices which did typifie his death most eminently were most intirely consumed by the fire and as their bloud was carried into the holy place so their body was burnt without the camp as our Saviour himself suffered without the gate If we look into the Psalms and Prophets we shall find frequent predictions of the sufferings of Christ Thirdly this is so plain a truth Abkath Rochelim l. 1. and so undeniable even by the Jews themselves that the later of them have devised a suffering Messias the Son of Joseph of the tribe of Ephraim And now they speak of a twofold Messias one the Son of Joseph to suffer death if need be another the Son of David to save and to deliver them This indeed is a vain conceit 't is groundless and 't is novel It hath no foundation in the Holy Scriptures nor in their most ancient and genuine Writers 'T is destitute of all reason and all fair pretence And we may by the same pretence That the Messias was to suffer Trypho does acknowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trypho in Just Marr. aswell set up a great many as two But as vain a conceit as 't is it will serve our turn against the Jews For they betake themselves to this refuge because they cannot deny that the Messias was to suffer And though it serve to no other purpose yet it serves to this that we have gained the point we contend for against themselves viz. that the Messias was to suffer and that therefore our Jesus ought not to be rejected upon that account That our Jesus did suffer This is confessed on all hands The Jews deny it not but mention him frequently with scorn upon this account I should be very vain if I should be operose under this head He must be very ignorant who hath not heard of the sufferings of Jesus His whole life aswell as his latter end was almost a perpetual suffering He was born in a stable and he died upon a Cross He suffered from his first
to be a Prophet and that he would divide the River and give them the advantage of passing over it This the Impostour did to his own destruction and of many of his followers Ib. c. 6. He tells us afterwards that under the government of Felix there were certain Magicians and Impostours that perswaded the people to follow them into the Wilderness promising them to shew them signs and wonders not without the hand of God whom some believed to their own hurt He tells us in the same Chapter that at that time there came a certain man from Egypt to Jerusalem pretending himself to be a Prophet and advising the people to follow him to Mount Olivet making them a promise that there they should see the walls of Jerusalem to fall down at his command and give them by that means a free passage to the City and this happened also to the destruction of many of his followers He tells us of another Magician in the time of Festus Ib. c. 7. who promised to save his followers and to deliver them from their evils if they would follow him into the Wilderness And that thereupon both the deceiver and the deceived were destroyed He tells us of another De Bello Judaic l. 7. c. 31. whose name was Jonathan by trade a Weaver who pretended to signs and wonders They were very prone to believe false people who had rejected our blessed Saviour the true Messias and Saviour of the world And this continued for some time And indeed there being so great expectation of a Saviour it is the less to be wondred at that they who had rejected the Saviour whom God sent should entertain those that came without his authority Our Saviour had said I am come in my father ' name and ye receive me not if anothâ—â— shall come in his own name him ye will receive Joh. 5.43 The Jews verified our Saviour's words and have been from time to time miserably baffled in their expectations and imposed upon by Cheats and Impostours as I may have a farther occasion to represent afterwards Indeed so it is that in the first beginning of Christianity they had the greater temptation to give credit to false Prophets because as they had rejected the true Prophet so they continued still in expectation of one that should save them It is very remarkable which Josephus in his book of the Jews Wars tells us to my present purpose l. 7. c. 12. viz. That that which chiefly excited the Jews to war with the Romans was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a prophecy though of doubtfull signification as he is pleased to call it yet contained in the Holy Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That at that time one of their own Countrey should have dominion over the world These things are no more than what our Saviour foretold and do shew us what need there was of our Saviour's words He tells the Jews There shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect Matt. 24.24 Evil men took hold of that occasion to deceive the people who being in a great expectation of a Saviour at that time were the more prone to hearken to those deceivers that did arise And the Jews being in expectation of a Saviour that should erect a Temporal Kingdom among them and give them dominion over their enemies Luk. 17.20 Act. 1.6 were by that means very forward to listen to them that pretended to give them the upper hand of their enemies and to set them free from the bondage they were under at that time Fourthly that in the old Testament the Messias is so particularly described that it might be known by comparing those descriptions with the event who was the Messias I grant that the promises of a Messias and the descriptions of him were not given out all at once But these things were dispensed in the several ages of the World in such measure and after such a manner as seemed fit to the wisedom of God And it cannot be denied that the First discoveries were more general and less determinate and as the time drew near in which the Messias was to be manifested so these discoveries were more particular and more plain God did not reveal these things all at once but at sundry times and after divers manners The same method Maimon H. Melachim c. 9. Cosri l. 1. fol. 38. as the Jews tell us God did take in revealing his law Those precepts which the Jews were obliged to they say were not delivered all at once For they tell that thus it was viz. That Adam received six precepts that is six of those which the Jews call the precepts of the Sons of Noah and they were that against Idolatry against blasphemy against shedding of bloud against fornication and rapine and that concerning judicatories But then Noah received the seventh which forbids him flesh with the life or bloud thereof Gen. 9.4 Thus things stood untill Abraham's time But he received besides what were named before the precept of circumcision and practised that of morning-prayer after him Isaac did set aside tithes This afternoon-prayer is called by the authour of Juchasin fol. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Maimonid calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies the prayer of the ninth hour or time of offering the continual or daily sacrifice and there Hornbeck mistakes greatly when he renders it by Precatio antelucana l. 7. c. 1. pro Conv. Judaeis Vid. Abravenel in Gen. 24.63 Pirke R. Elieser c. 16. and from him they had their afternoon-prayer Jacob added the precept which forbids the eating the sinew that shrank and he appointed the evening-prayer Amram in Egypt received other precepts till Moses came by whom the law was completed I am not much concerned to enquire how far this account that the Jews give of the gradual dispensing of their law is true I shall shew you that God took this method in promising the Messias and giving the Jews notice of his coming and that however the first promises were more obscure being more general and indeterminate yet afterwards God gave the Jews a more particular and a more clear and express notice of him that they might and we also by a diligent comparing of events with predictions know him when he came And to that purpose I shall lay before you what God did in the several ages of the world The first promise of the Messias was presently upon Adam's transgression And he is promised as the Seed of the Woman that should break the serpent's head Gen. 3.15 And this was done just upon man's fall God took care betimes to give notice of the means of man's recovery This onely insinuates that he should appear in our nature and overcome our enemy but it does not tell us of what family or lineage he shall be But then in the time of Abraham the
Messias is promised again and it will be worth our while to consider with what variety the promise is made The promise in one place runs thus In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed Gen. 12.3 This was the first promise which was made to Abraham But then we find this promise renewed afterward but yet differently expressed In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed Gen. 22.18 The reason of which variety seems to be this that when the first promise of the Messias was made to Abram Isaac was not born and therefore it was said in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed But after this Abram's name is changed and Isaac the Son of the promise is born and Abraham had in obedience to God offered up this Son and now God renews to him the promise of the Messias In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed God had just before promised Abraham to multiply his posterity v. 17. but then what follows v. 18. is to be understood with a particular reference to Isaac and therewithall as containing a precise and particular promise of the Messias Gal. 3.16 For those words In thy seed v. 18. are not to be understood in the latitude that the same words thy seed v. 17. are to be understood in but in a particular and restrained sense as takes in Isaac and in him the Messias And this observation by the way may serve for the better understanding those words Gal. 3.16 Nor is this all the variety neither in these several promises of the Messias For Gen. 12.3 't is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall be blessed But Gen. 22.18 't is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall bless themselves And after the same manner is the promise renewed to Isaac Gen. 26.4 That is they shall think themselves blessed in the Messias the source and fountain of blessing And thus as the Messias was promised at first as the seed of the woman and a conquerour of the serpent so he was promised to Abraham and to Isaac as the fountain of blessing And then if we proceed we shall find that Isaac in his blessing to Jacob does not forget to transmit the blessing of Abraham to him and to his seed with him Gen. 28.4 which was confirmed by God v. 14. This blessing Jacob does not forget at such time as he blessed his Children but mentions it in the blessing of Judah and withall gives some account of the time of the appearance of the Messias under the name of Shiloh and of the obedience that should be yielded to him Gen. 49.10 After this we have a prediction from the mouth of Balaam who was sent for indeed to curse the Israelites yet does he bless them and predict the great blessing of the Messias There shall come a star out of Jacob and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Seth Numb 24.17 Again we have still a more particular account that the Messias should be a great Prophet and that we have from Moses the greatest Prophet The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me Deut. 18.15 And it follows and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him v. 18 19. After this the Messias is promised under the character of a King 1 Sam. 2.10 And a King of the house of David 2 Sam. 7. 1 Chro. 17. Psal 72. and 132. So that now we have some account of the office and of the lineage and family of the Messias He is promised as a Prophet by Moses as a King to David and as a Priest too in the Book of Psalms Psal 110.4 His offices and his tribe and lineage being thus predicted we shall find afterwards and especially as the time of his appearance drew near many particulars predicted and sometimes very minute ones also relating to his birth and to his life to his miracles and the place of his converse to his death and sufferings his resurrection and ascension and the great success of his undertaking upon the Gentile world That he should be born in Bethlehem the Prophet Micah tell us Mic. 5.2 And of a Virgin the Prophet Isaiah Isa 7.14 That he should come before the Jewish polity were quite destroyed Jacob had predicted Gen. 49.10 And that he should come while the Second Temple stood Haggai assures us Hag. 2. And that the time of his appearing was about the time when our Saviour Jesus appeared we may learn from the Prophet Daniel Dan. 9. And that he should come suddenly into his Temple the Prophet Malachy assures us Mal. 3.1 We have a prediction of his forerunner Isa 40. Of his coming back from Egypt Hos 11.1 And of the slaughter of the Innocents Jer. 31. That the Messias should converse much in Galilee is foretold Isa 9.1 What works the Messias should doe is predicted Isa 42.7.35.5 6. That he should be a great Prophet Deut. 18. That he should be a prince of peace Isa 9.6 A most righteous person Isa 11.5 That he should not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets Isa 42.2 That he should be lowly is foretold Zech. 9.9 That the Messias should be despised and rejected by his own people that he should appear in a low servile and despicable condition is also foretold Isa 52. and 53. And then for his death that is not onely foretold but the manner and minutest circumstances of it also That he should be crucified Zech. 12.10 Ps 22.16 That he should be betrayed by his disciple and familiar Psal 41.9 That he should be sold for thirty pieces of silver Zech. 11.12 And crucified among thieves Isa 53.12 That on the Cross they should give him vinegar to drink Ps 69.21 That his garments should be parted and that lots should be cast upon his vesture Psal 18.22 That he should be derided and scoffed at even when he was under his sufferings Psal 22.7 8. That he should intercede for transgressours Isa 53.12 That he should suffer with a Lamb-like meekness Isa 53.7 And that notwithstanding all the malice of his enemies yet his bones should not be broken Exod. 12.46 That the Messias should be buried is also foretold Psal 16.10 And honourably interred also Isa 53.9 And that he should rise again Psal 2.7.16.10 And ascend into heaven Psal 68.18 And that the Gentiles should serve and acknowledge him Isa 49.6 These things are predicted of the Messias in the old Testament we are now to consider whether we can find them fulfilled in our Jesus And if we do we may very safely conclude that this Jesus is the Christ I shall not