of one that was Blind and another that was Lame at Alexandria He that would know the Particulars may consult Tacitus his History And last of all we ought to observe That the Jews do not only agree that this Oracle of Isaiah refers to the Messiah but they also still propose the Power of working Miracles as a Character which would render the Messiah very illustrious and certainly known CHAP. XVII That the Messiah was to be an illustrious Prophet THis Truth I have already asserted in the Reflexions I made on the Prophecy of Moses Deut. XVIII But one ought to explain this Character of the Messiah more particularly God having been pleased further to illustrate this Oracle of Moses First then We say that the word Messiah implies Anointing which was common to Kings Prophets and Priests and since David's time we find nothing more common than this Title in the Books of the Old Testament where we may observe that Moses was dignified with this Gift of Prophecy and that Samuel communicated the same to Saul and David when he anointed them to be Kings Yea the Jews to this day are of opinion that Elias the Prophet shall anoint the Messiah that is initiate him in his Prophetical as well as his Royal Function Secondly God more precisely signifies this Isai XI Vers 1 2 3. where he declares he would communicate all the necessary Gifts of the Prophetical Function to the Messiah There shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his Roots And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and Might the Spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear of the Lord. So that he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes neither reprove after the hearing of his ears These words need no Commentary For the Jews refer them constantly to the Messiah and they plainly import that he was to be a great Prophet forasmuch as all the Characters which are there given to the Spirit which was to rest on the Messiah are the same which in the Old Testament we find attributed to the Prophets and may easily be taken notice of in the History of the Prophets especially of David and Solomon And much to the same purpose is that passage Isai XLII vers 1 2 3 4 5 6 and 7. Behold my Servant whom I uphold mine Elect in whom my Soul delighteth I have put my Spirit upon him he shall bring forth Judgment to the Gentiles He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street A bruised Reed shall he not break and the smoking Flax shall he not quench he shall bring forth Judgment unto Truth He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set Judgment in the Earth and the Isles shall wait for his Law. Thus saith God the Lord he that created the Heavens and stretched them out he that spread forth the Earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath to the People upon it and spirit to them that walk therein I the Lord have called thee in Righteousness and will hold thine and will keep thee and give thee for a Covenant of the people for a Light of the Gentiles to open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house In which Oracle one ought to take notice particularly of those things which the Jews apply to the Messiah 1. That God proposes the Gifts of the Spirit which he bestowed upon him as an Effect of his Love and the choice he had made of him 2. That the Messiah was to make use of the same as Rules for reforming the Country and propounding Gods Covenant to the Gentiles which clearly suppose the necessity of the Gift of Prophecy to qualifie him for such great Undertakings 3. That contrary to the thundring Character which distinguished the rest of the Prophets who were as so many publick Censors the Messiah was to speak with all meekness and sweetness to the Nations which should receive his Preaching One see 's that Isaiah repeats the same Idea's Chap. LXI vers 1 2 3 4 5 6 and 7. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek he hath sent me to bind-up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of Vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion to give unto them Beauty for Ashes the Oyl of Joy for Mourning the Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness that they might be called Trees of Righteousness the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified And they shall build the old Wasts they shall raise up the former Desolations and they shall repair the waste Cities the Desolations of many Generations And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks and the sons of the Alien shall be your Plowmen and your Vine dressers But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord men shall call you the Ministers of our God ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles and in their glory shall ye boast your selves For your shame ye shall have double and for confusion they shall rejoyce in their portion therefore in their Land they shall possess the double everlasting joy shall be upon them In short he represents in this and the former Oracle the Gentiles as a People being in darkness and in the misery of a Prison from whence we may easily infer First That the Messiah was to be a Prophet how vile and abject soever that Character might appear in the eyes of the World as I have shewed that it was where I spake of the Prophets in general Secondly That he was to discharge these Functions during the whole course of his Life and that it was to be his chief Employment here upon Earth David had before signified Psalm XXII verse 22. that the Messiah was to declare the Name of God unto his Brethren viz. the Jews by exercising his Prophetical Function in Judea but the Holy Spirit did something more when he seem'd to point out Galilee as the place where this Sacred Doctor was chiefly to fix his abode This is in effect insinuated when God tells us that he was to begin his Ministerial Functions in the Tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon Isai IX vers 1 2 and 3. Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation when at the first he lightly afflicted the Land of Zebulon and the Land of Naphtali and afterwards did more grievously afflict her by the way of the Sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the Nations The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light they that dwell in the land
we read in the eighth Chapter of Genesis about the Deluge doth refer to this custom where we find Noah sending forth the Dove and the Raven on the seventh day which plainly hints to us his observing of that day for it seems that Noah having in an especial manner on that solemn day implored the assistance of God in the Assembly of his Family he expected a particular Blessing from it And we cannot but make some Reflexion on that which we read in the XXIX of Genesis concerning the term of a Week set apart to the Nuptials of Leah Gen. XXIX 27. where at the twenty seventh Verse Laban thus expresses himself Fulfil her Week and we will give thee this also for the Service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other Years This Week here doth so plainly signifie a Week of days that it cannot be more naturally express'd and indeed all generally understand by this Week of the Marriage Feast of Leah that term of time which in succeeding Ages hath been customary to allot to Nuptial Festivals as appears from the Book of Esther where the Wedding Feast of Vasthi lasted seven days this term of seven days having so long since been Consecrated to Nuptial Rejoycings The same we may also gather from the time which was ordinarily allotted to mourning for the Dead to which we find the Patriarchs allotted a term proportion'd to that of their rejoicing For as we see that the Egyptians mourned ten Weeks for Jacob because of his Quality as being the Father of Joseph so we find that Joseph and those that accompanied him mourned seven days at his Enterment in the Land of Canaan And as we find that this Custom was perpetually afterwards observ'd by the Jews as appears from Ecclesiasticus XXII 12. so likewise we find the same observed by the Asiaticks as may be seen in the History of Ammianus Marcellinus at the beginning of his nineteenth Book De fide Resur in obitu Sat. p. 321. Seven days were fulfilled after that the Lord had smote the River Jalkut in h. l. and from them it passed to the Christians as we find in St. Ambrose Thirdly It appears from Exod. VII 25. that God observed seven days after he had smote the River to change the Waters thereof into Blood from whence the Jews conclude that the three Plagues Viz. that of Blood of Frogs and of Lice abode on the Land of Egypt six days and were withdrawn on the seventh which is the Sabbath We may also gather if we calculate the time exactly that the Jews in Egypt observed the Sabbath We find from the History of their departure out of Egypt that the same happened on a Thursday being the fifteenth of the Month Nisan and the day in which they sung those Hymns of Deliverance was the Sabbath which God had particularly set apart for this Week It is also evident from Exod. XVI that the keeping of the Sabbath was observ'd by the Israelites before the Law was given on Mount Sinai For we find God speaking there concerning the Sabbath not as of a thing newly instituted but as of an antient Law which they wer e not to transgress by gathering the Manna on that day for he orders them to gather a double portion the sixth day and not to gather any on the seventh We see that the Israelites resting on the seventh day is here supposed a known and customary thing prescribed to them by a Law of old They who went forth to gather Manna on the seventh day are represented as Transgressors of a known Law as appears from the words of the Lord to Moses How long refuse ye to keep my Commandments and my Laws Moses also speaks of the Sabbath which was to be the next day as of a thing customary and received amongst them To morrow saith he at v. 23. is the rest of the Sabbath of holiness unto the Lord words which would have been unintelligible to the Israelites and express'd a Law altogether impracticable in case they had been destitute of any further knowledge concerning it and had not been acquainted that it was the very day in which the great work of Creation had been finished My fourth Observation I take from the very words of the Decalogue where first of all we find God speaking in this manner Remember the Sabbath day which words clearly import Exod. XX. 8. that the Law he gave was not a new Law but indeed as old as the World and which had been observed by their Forefathers It seems probable also that God expresses himself in these terms because the Tyranny of Pharaoh had forc'd them to break this Law by obliging them to deliver their Tale of Bricks every day without excepting the Sabbath which before he had allowed them to keep This is explained very distinctly in the fifth of Exodus and seems to have been the occasion of Moses's demanding Straw of Pharaoh for the Israelites to go and Sacrifice in answer to which demand Exod. V. 5. Pharaoh expresses himself in terms which shew that formerly they had observed a rest on that day However it be yet thus much is apparent that God commands them to make their Bond Servants to observe the Sabbath because the Egyptians by their example inclin'd them not to be very careful in exempting them from all labour on that day Moreover in the second place we are to take notice that in the last words of the fourth Commandment God speaks of it as of a thing formerly appointed and determin'd by him saying For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it which words have a manifest and undeniable reference to that which happen'd the seventh day after the Creation and to the Law then given to Man concerning it We may gather from the fourth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews that the sense which we have put upon the third Verse of the second of Genesis is the same which the Jews have always had of it The Apostle discoursing from those words of David Psal XCV To whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest doth suppose a threefold rest the first of which is the rest of the Sabbath of which mention is made in the second of Genesis where we have the first institution of it the second was the rest in the Land of Canaan promised to the Jews upon their enduring all those Tryals in the Wilderness the third the rest in Heaven of which the two foregoing were but the Figures He argues therefore that these words of David could not be understood concerning the Sabbath day forasmuch as from the beginning of the World Men entred into that rest of the Sabbath and he proves this by that passage in Genesis of which he only cites the first words viz. That God rested the seventh day from all his works as supposing that the Jews
and his Asses Colt unto the choice Vine he washed his Garments in Wine and his Clothes in the Blood of Grapes His eyes shall be red with Wine and his Teeth white with Milk. Gen. XLIX 8. 12. I know very well that some of the Jews have pretended that Moses ought to be understood for Shiloh But this is so ridiculous an Opinion that there is not the least probability to maintain it What Scepter had Judah before Moses came How was Moses the Expectation of the Gentiles and the Object of their Hope And indeed the Body of the Jewish Nation are agreed that this Oracle was meant of the Messiah so Onkelos the Chaldee Paraphrast so the Jerusalem Targum and Jonathan's so R. Solomon Jarchi Abenezra and Kimchi are agreed Now these Reflexions may be naturally drawn from this Oracle which Jacob uttered upon his Death-bed I. This Oracle is found amongst a great number of Oracles which concern the other Tribes of the Israelites and which were accomplished as to every Tribe II. This Oracle contains several particular Events which relate to private Transactions in the Tribe of Judah III. This Oracle was as it were Jacob's Will in favour of Judah at a time when he divided amongst his Children their Portions which they were to expect from him IV. This was a Preference of Judah who was but the fourth to Reuben who was the eldest and who by consequence ought to have been the Head of his Family The Scepter and the Authority of Legislator was promised to Judah which did not belong to him by the right of his Birth Jacob therefore prepared his Children to look for an accomplishment of those Promises made to Abraham in Judah as well for the Kings who were to be descended from him as for the Nations of the Earth who were to be blessed in Abraham's Seed But we must go yet further I shall therefore observe I. That this Prophecy particularly regarded the Tribe of Judah as all the preceding and following Oracles concern'd those Tribes whose Heads were then named by Jacob. II. That this Prophecy concerns the Tribe of Judah as settled in the Land of Canaan by a distinct establishment from the other Tribes In short it is certain that the Tribe of Judah had some superiority Thus God for instance commanded that Tribe to march the first Numb II. X. Its Heads offered their presents first Numb VII 11 12 83. In Joshua's time this Tribe took its Division without drawing Lots for it One see 's that God ordered the Tribe of Judah to lead the People out to the Conquest of the rest of the Country One see 's the same Prerogatives in the Book of Judges tho' they were often of other Tribes From David's time to the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar the Kings were all of that Tribe and Zorobabel afterwards headed those who returned out of Chaldea The Book of the Chronicles names the Tribe of Judah first Herod was the first King who was wholly a Stranger III. That Jacob supposed that the Tribe of Judah should be in possession of a Form of Government and of a Community till the coming of the Messiah This was all very proper and indeed we see that this Tribe continued under its own Governours after the other Tribes had been transported II Kings XVII 18. It almost swallowed up Benjamin and Levi who settled in their Country and indeed Josephus assures us That there were but few of the Ten Tribes who came back again into Judea under Ezra for the greatest part of them stayed beyond Euphrates And we see that at last they gave their Name to the whole Country IV. That this Oracle was fulfilled by degrees This I have observed already of the preheminency of the Tribe of Judah before David's time which was a step to the advancement of it to the Throne And the lessening of their Dignity which was to be entirely taken away when the Messiah came had also the same Gradations David was set upon the Throne over all Israel but his House lost the Government over Ten Tribes in his Grandson Rehoboam's time His Successors were Tributary to the neighbouring Princes whereas David carried his Empire to the Walls of Babylon tho' afterwards the Babylonians subdued the Jews and deposed the Kings of Judah At last they absolutely lost all that Authority which they had hitherto kept They recovered a little in the Person of Zorobabel and tho' they were soon after invaded by the Seleucidae yet the Maccabees preserved them a little till Herod and the Romans took away all those Remnants which they had yet left In carrying these Views of this Oracle further we may yet further observe I. That God intended to oblige the Israelites to wait for the Scepter in the Tribe of Judah It must be there before it could depart thence It was natural to conceive that the Jews were to look yet much further than David Those words It shall not depart denote a continuance of the Scepter in the House of David for some considerable time II. It is easie to comprehend a lessening of the Dignity in the term Lawgiver See Judges V. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which God seems to have made use of as a Mark of the Fall which I have observed in the Person of Zorobabel who as to the time was about the middle of the Oracle III. In a word it is easie to acknowledge that this Oracle assigns the Epocha in gross for the time of the coming of the Messiah viz. the Ruin of that Authority and Power which the Jews properly so called from the Tribe of Judah should enjoy after their re-establishment God could not explain himself more particularly in stating the precise time when this thing should happen There are two other very considerable Oracles one uttered by Balaam in the Year 2553 before the King of the Moabites who had sent for him to curse the People of Israel that lay in the Plains the other uttered the same Year by Moses the famous Legislator of the Jews the first is inserted by Moses in the XXIV Chapter of Numbers the other is in the XVIII of Deuteronomy The first is in these words I shall see him but not now I shall behold him but not nigh there shall come a Star out of Jacob and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel and shall smite all the Corners of Moab and destroy all the Children of Seth And Edom shall be a Possession Seir also shall be a Possession for his Enemies and Israel shall do valiantly Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have Dominion and shall destroy him that remaineth of the City One ought to observe that Balaam's Character the presence of the King and the Elders of Moab and all the Circumstances in which it was uttered do advance its Authority considerably But the turn of his Expressions is equally singular and remarkable I. He speaks of the Messiah as of a Star hinting out to us the Celestial Nature
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no Priest to me seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God I will also forget thy children The Prophet Jeremy speaks to the same purpose Chap. V. vers 21 22 and 23. Hear now this O foolish people and without understanding which have eyes and see not which have ears and hear not Fear ye not me saith the Lord Will ye not tremble at my presence who have placed the Sand for the bound of the Sea by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass it and tho' the waves thereof toss themselves yet can they not prevail tho' they roar yet can they not pass over it But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart they are revolted and gone And he reiterates the same Chap. VIII vers 7. The stork in the Heavens knoweth her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming but my people know not the Judgment of the Lord. Ezechiel prosecutes the same matter Chap. II. vers 5 and 8. calling the Jews a Rebellious House And Chap. XII vers 1 and 2. he saith The word of the Lord came unto me saying Son of Man thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious House who have eyes to see and see not they have ears to hear and hear not for they are a rebellious House Neither do the Prophets only represent to us in general the blindness of the Jews upon several occasions but they also very particularly inform us that he who was the most considerable person of their State and the great Minister of God should be notwithstanding rejected by them And here first It is worth our noting that Moses threatens the worst of Calamities to those who should refuse to hear the great Prophet like unto him whom God was to raise to his People Deut. XVIII vers 18. Secondly David Psalm CXVIII v. 22. expresses this in these words The Stone which the Builders refused is become the Head of the Corner From which words it is evident 1. That the Messiah was to be rejected 2. That he was to be rejected by those who were intrusted with the care of building the House 3. That this was to be before he should be acknowledged the great Minister of Heaven God speaks the same thing by Isaiah Chap. XXVIII vers 6. Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone a tried stone a precious corner stone a sure foundation he that believeth shall not make haste Which place is to be understood of the Messiah by the Confession of the Jews themselves Daniel follows the same Notion Chap. II. vers 34 35. Thou sawest till a stone was cut out without hands which smote the Image upon his feet and brake them to pieces and the stone became a great Mountain and filled the Earth On all which Prophecies we may make these Remarks 1. That Jesus Christ quotes most of them as such which by the Jews themselves were owned to refer to the Messiah Thus Matt. XXI verse 42. he saith Did ye never read in the Scriptures the Stone which the Builders rejected the same is become the Head of the Corner And St. Peter Acts IV. vers 11. This is the stone which was set at nought by you builders which is become the head of the corner St. Paul makes the same allusion Ephes II. vers 20. And are built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone And I Cor. III. verse 11. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ And when Jesus Christ himself saith to Peter Matth. XVI verse 18. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church c. He alludes to that of Daniel Then was the Iron the Clay the Brass the Silver and the Gold broken to pieces together and became like the Chaff of the Summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away that no place was found for them and the Stone which smote the Image became a great Mountain and filled the whole Earth Our Saviour applyes also to the Jews those Prophecies which foretel their being offended at the Ministers of Heaven in particular that of Isaiah Chap. VI. verse 9. Go and tell this people hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not 2. We may observe that the Jews of old applyed those Prophecies as the Apostles did to the hardning of their own Nation as appears from that of St. Paul Rom. X. verse 21. But to Israel he saith all the day long I have stretched forth my hand unto a disobedient and gain-saying people 3. We must take notice That the same temper which was in the ancient Jews who rejected the Prophets was found in those who lived at the time of our Saviour and for this we need only to read the description which Josephus de Bello Judaico Lib. VII cap. 3. gives of them where he compares them with the Sodomites which is the Comparison Isaiah makes Chap. I. verse 10. And last of all we may take notice That Josephus acknowledges that this Blindness of the Jews was the cause of the final destruction of Jerusalem which was to succeed the Death of the Messiah according to the express Oracle of Daniel Chap. IX verse 26. CHAP. XX. That the Messiah was to dye and an Account of the several Circumstances of his Death TO be convinced of this Truth we need only prove that what is set down in Psalm XXII Isaiah LIII Daniel IX and Zachariah XIII and other prophetical passages of Holy Scripture is to be understood of the Messiah and the reading of them alone is sufficient to satisfie the meanest Capacity that the person they point at was to lose his life by violence with several very infamous Circumstances Now it is certain that both ancient and modern Jews interpret these places of the Messiah and it is as evident that the Apostles understood them so and therefore all along applyed them to Jesus Christ following therein the known explications of the Rabbies of their own Nation It is plain also That the Death and Suffering of our Saviour would have prov'd a more efficaci ous Argument to refute the Apostles than all the Miracles of Jesus Christ could have been to establish their Doctrine if the Prophetical Writings had not so precisely determined his Sufferings and Death with the several Circumstances of them It is also to be noted That the Prophecies referring to the Death of the Messiah are generally interwoven with Idea's which point to other Prophetical passages avowedly owned by the Jews to have Relation to the Messiah Thus if we compare Psalm XXII verse 28. with Psalm LXXII vers 8 9. we shall find the same Idea set forth in them both And because this Character was to be the most proper and distinguishing note of
may seem to be worthy of the Divine Wisdom and so I shall only observe at present that this visit was made to Elizabeth in a City of Judah which is a demonstrative proof that Jesus Christ was of the Family of David and consequently of that of Judah so that this is far from being made use of as an Objection against it as some have done It is well known that the Priests had leave to take a Wife of what Tribe they pleased But who see 's not at first sight that it was natural for a Priest dwelling in one of the Cities of Judah to marry in that Tribe amongst whom he lived besides that the Priests had of a long time affected to make Alliances with that Tribe before any other The second thing which ought to be joyned to this is the manner of Elizabeths expressing her self to the Blessed Virgin considering her as bearing the Messiah in her Womb and upon this account she called her the Mother of my Lord alluding to Psalm CX The third is That the Blessed Virgin in her Song where she speaks of her self as the Person in whom the Promise made to Abraham was accomplished Luke I. vers 54 55. which Promise concerned the Messiah she sets forth her self as Heiress to the Kings of Judah and chosen before any her Ancestors notwithstanding all their Glory He hath put down saith she the Mighty from their Seats and hath exalted them of low Degree The fourth is That Zachariah the Priest who was well acquainted with the Blessed Virgin at whose House she had been during the first three Months of her being with Child and who could not be ignorant of her lineage alwayes owned her to be of the Family of David It is evident that he look'd upon the Blessed Virgin as the Mother of the Messiah as well as Elizabeth his Wife He seems to have considered the Infant that was to be born of her as the Redeemer promised to Abraham and the Blessed Virgin as the Heiress of David and therefore saith That God had raised up an Horn of Salvation for us in the House of his Servant David There can be nothing more convincing than this Observation for first Zachariah was a Priest that is one of those to whom the care of the Genealogies of the Jews was committed 2. He appears to have been very well versed in the Prophecies which fixed the Messiah to the Family of David 3. He consider'd his Son as the Forerunner of the Messiah when he proposed that the Oracle of Malachy should be fulfilled in that Son whom God had so miraculously bestowed upon him 4. He needed only have examined the Agreements of her Marriage and he would then certainly know whether the Blessed Virgin was not of another Tribe which would have cured him of any possible illusion In short S. Luke observes very exactly that this Journey of the Virgin to her Kinswoman and all the Circumstances which prove the Blessed Virgin to have been of the Family of David were things well known throughout all the Hill-Country of Judea that it might not be pretended that this important Fact was any ways obscure But secondly this Genealogy of Jesus Christ is carried up to David and Judah and it is visible that this was a thing exactly known especially since Jesus Christ always passed for the Son of David blind men themselves calling him so A third thing to be considered is the Blessed Virgins going to Bethlehem to be there enrolled according to the Decree of Augustus Cesar There had been several numbrings of the people the first was at the appointment of God himself the second was by an order from David and in both an exact distinction was made between the Tribes themselves and the Families of each Tribe And one see 's that the same was observed in this last Register which was made by Augustus's Decree in the 4000 year of the World. Joseph and Mary went up to Bethlehem which was the Seat of David's Family nothing appears here of design or affectation they made no stay at Bethlehem and the occasion that brought them thither was absolutely strange and unlook'd for and yet it was certainly an accomplishment of that Prophecy of Micah Chap. V. verse 2. But thou Bethlehem Ephratah c. This Remark upon the Decree of Augustus is of great moment because thereby the Virgins being of the Family of David appears to be the most indisputable Truth in the World as having been owned first by the whole Family of Judah for three Months Secondly By the Genealogy which subsisted entire as the Talmudists themselves grant in the Treatise de Sponsal Chap. IV. Sect. 5. where they testifie that the Genealogy of the Royal Family was without difficulty 3. By the publick testimony of all their Kindred who met in a body before the Roman Magistrate The fourth Remark is That when Herod knew of the Birth of the Messiah at Bethlehem where by the confession of the Jews he was to be born he would have envolved Jesus Christ in the Massacre which swept away the innocent Children if the same Providence which brought him to Bethlehem to demonstrate that he was of the House of David had not withdrawn him from thence to preserve him from that Tyrant who was afraid of being cast from his Throne by one of David's Heirs The fifth is That Jesus Christ did not only often allude to the place of his Birth in calling himself the Bread come down from Heaven the word Bethlehem signifying the House of Bread but he constantly own'd himself for the Son of David Upon this it is that he grounds the Objection which he makes to the Jews How is it that David calls the Messiah his Lord And indeed this Fact was so constantly owned by all that even persons who were possessed with Devils did not dispute it as may be seen in the Evangelists The sixth is That tho' two of the Evangelists set down the Genealogy of our Saviour with some difference yet the Jews never took occasion from thence to question Jesus Christ's descent from David his Apostles always building on that Foundation which may be seen as a thing taken for granted in S. Peter's Sermon Acts II. and in the Epistles of S. Paul where we find our Saviour always stiled the Son of David according to the Flesh To these already mentioned we may add the three following Observations the first is That if the Genealogy of our Saviour had not been distinctly known the Apostles would never have troubled themselves to have set it down much less would they have plac'd it in the front of their Books as knowing that the beginnings of Books are always more examined than the ends and would certainly be so by a people who always stick very close to their Genealogies In short either the Genealogies of the Jews were at that time as confused as they are at present and so they could not have served as Characters to discover the