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Messiah should appear, whether he were of the tribe of Judah, far less whether he were of the lineage of David: nor can they show the genealogy of any they call Levites now among theni.

This is occasioned by their being dispersed among all nations, and yet preserved a distinct people from all the earth, though without any country of their own, or king, or priest, or temple, or sacrifice. And they are thus preserved by the providence of God, so as never any nation was since the foundation of the world, to show the fulfilling of the prophecies concerning them, and the judgments pronounced against them for their crucifying their Messiah; and that their conversion may be more apparent to the world, and their being gathered out of all nations, and restored to Jerusalem, (as is promised them) when they shall come to acknowledge their Messiah.

And God not permitting them to have any king or governor upon earth, ever since their last dispersion by the Romans, (lest they might say that the sceptre was not departed from Judah,) is to convince them, when God shall take the veil off their heart, that no other Messiah, who can come hereafter, can answer this prophecy of Jeremiah, or that of Jacob, that the sceptre should not depart from Judah till Shiloh came.

(11.) And it is wonderful to consider how expressly their present state is prophesied of, that it could not be more literal, if it were to be worded now by us who see it. As that they should be scattered into all countries, sifted as with a sieve among all nations, yet preserved a people; and that God would make an utter end of those nations who had oppressed them, and blot out their names from under heaven, (as we have seen it fulfilled upon the great empires of the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Romans, who one after the other had miserably wasted the Jews,) but that the name of the Jews, the fewest and poorest of all nations, should remain for ever, and they a people distinct from all the nations in the world, though scattered among them all. Read the prophecies express upon this point, (Jer. xxx. 11; xxxi. 36, 37; xxxiii. 24-26; xlvi. 28; Isa. xxvii. 7; xxix. 7, 8; liv. 9, 10; lxv. 8; Ezek. vi. 8; xi. 16, 17; xii. 15, 16; Amos, ix. 8, 9; Zech. x. 9.) And it was foretold them long before that thus it would be, (Lev. xxvi. 44,) and this "in the latter days," (Deut. iv. 27, 30, 31.) Thus Moses told them of it so long before, as the after prophets frequently; and you see all these prophecies literally fulfilled and fulfilling. The like cannot be said of any other nation that ever was upon the earth! So destroyed, and so preserved! and for so long a time!—having worn out all the great empires of the world, and still surviving

them!-to fulfil what was farther prophesied of them to the end of the world.

De. I cannot say but there is something very surprising in this: I never thought of it before. It is a living prophecy which we see fulfilled and still fulfilling at this day before our eyes. For we are sure these prophecies were not coined yesterday; and they are as express and particular as if they were to be wrote now, after the events are so far come to pass.

(12.) Chr. As the door was kept open to Christ before he came, by the many and flagrant prophecies of him, and by the types representing him, so was the door for ever shut after him, by those prophecies being all fulfilled and completed in him, and applicable to none who should come after him; and by all the types ceasing, the shadows vanishing, when the substance was come. No Messiah can come now before the sceptre depart from Judah, and the sacrifice from Jerusalem; before the sons of David (all except Christ) shall cease to sit upon his throne, none can come now within four hundred and ninety years of the building of the second temple, nor come into that very temple, as I have before showed was expressly prophesied by Daniel and Haggai.

De. I know not what the Jews can say, who own these prophecies.

Chr. They say, that the coming of the Messiah at the time spoke of in the Prophets, has been delayed because of their sins.

De. Then it may be delayed for ever, unless they can tell us when they will grow better. But, however, these prophecies have failed which spoke of the time of the Messiah's coming; and they can never be a proof hereafter, because the time is past. So that, according to this, they were made for no purpose, unless to show that they were false; that is, no prophecies at all!

But were these prophecies upon condition! Or was it said that the coming of the Messiah should be delayed if the Jews were sinful?

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Chr. No so far from it, that it was expressly prophesied that the coming of the Messiah should be in the most sinful state of the Jews, and to purge their sins, (Dan. ix. 24; Zech. xiii. 1.) And the ancient tradition of the Jews was pursuant to this, that at the coming of the Messiah the temple should be a den of thieves, (Rabbi Juda, in Masoreta,) and a time of great corruption, (Talmud. tit de Synedrio, and de Ponderibus, &c.)

But more than this, the very case is put of their being most sinful, and it is expressly said, that this should not hinder the fulfilling of the prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah, spoke of as the Son of David, (2 Sam. vii. 14–16; Psal. lxxxix. 30, 33 -37.)

But it was prophesied that they should not

know their Messiah, and should reject him when he came; that he should be a stone of stumbling," and a "rock of offence" to them, (Isa. viii. 14, 15 ;) and that "their eyes should be closed," that they should not understand their own prophets, (xxix. 9-11;) that their builders should reject the head stone of their corner, (Psal. exviii. 22;) and the like in several other places of their own prophets. And thus they mistook the prophecy concerning the coming of Elias, whom it is said they knew not, but did to him what they listed ;" and so the same of Christ, (Matt. xvii. 12.) And it is said, (1 Cor. ii. 8,) that "had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

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De. This indeed solves the prophecies, both those of the coming of the Messiah, and of the Jews not knowing him, and therefore rejecting him; and likewise obviates this excuse of theirs; for if they were very sinful at that time, it was a greater punishment of their sin not to know, and to reject their Messiah, than his not coming at that time would have been.

Chr. The great sin mentioned for which they were punished by several captivities, we heir idolatry, the last and longest of which captivities was that of seventy years in Babylon; since which time they have forsaken their idolatry, and have never been nationally guilty of it since, but always had it in the utmost abhorrence. But since their rejecting their Messiah, they have been now near seventeen hundred years-not in a captivity, where they might be all together, and enjoying their own law, government, and worship, in some manner, but dispersed over all the world, without country of their own, or king, or priest, or temple, or sacrifice, or any prophet to comfort them, or give them hopes of a restoration; and all this come upon them, not for their old sin of idolatry, but from that curse they imprecated upon themselves when they crucified their Messiah, saying, "His blood be on us and on our children;" which cleaves unto them from that day to this, and is visible to all the world but to themselves! And what other sin can they think greater than idolatry, for which they have been punished so much more terribly than for all their idolatries? what other sin can this be, but their crucifying the Messiah? And here they may see their sinful state, which they allege as an excuse for their Messiah's not coming at the time foretold by the prophets, rendered tenfold more sinful by their rejecting him when he came.

De. This is a full answer, and convincing s to the Jews. But have you any more to say to me?

(13.) Chr. I have one thing more to offer, which may come under this head of types, and that is, persons who represented Christ

in several particulars, and so might be called personal types.

And I will not apply these out of my own head, but as they are applied in the New Testament, which, having all the marks of the Old Testament, and stronger evidence than these, in those marks we are now upon, their authority is indisputable.

Eve

1. I begin with Adam, who gave us life and death too; and Christ came by his death to restore us to life again, even life eternal. Hence Christ is called the second Adam, and Adam is called the figure of Christ. The parallel betwixt them is insisted on, Rom. v. 12. to the end, and 1 Cor. xv. 45-50. received her life from Adam, as the Church from Christ. She was taken out of the side of Adam when he was in a dead sleep; and after Christ was dead, the sacraments of water and blood flowed out of his side, that is, baptism, whereby we are born into Christ, and the sacrament of his blood, whereby we are nourished into eternal life.

2. Enoch was carried up bodily into heaven; as Elijah, -one under the patriarchal, the other under the legal dispensation. In both, the ascension of Christ was prefigured.

3. Noah, a preacher of righteousness to the old world, and father of the new. Who saved the church by water, the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, (1 Pet. iii. 20, 21.)

4. Melchisedec, that is, King of Righteousness, and King of Peace, and Priest of the most High God; who was made like unto the Son of God, a priest continually, (Heb. vii. 1, 2, 3.)

5. Abraham, the friend of God, and Father of the Faithful, the heir of the world, (Rom. iv. 13;) in whom all the nations of the earth are blessed, (Gen. xviii. 18.)

6. Isaac, the heir of this promise, was born after his father and mother were both past the age of generation in the course of nature, (Gen. xvii. 17. xviii. 11.; Rom. iv. 19.; Heb. xi. 11, 12.) The nearest type that could be to the generation of Christ wholly without a

man.

And his sacrifice had a very near resemblance to the sacrifice and death of Christ, who lay three days in the grave, and Isaac was three days a dead man (as we say in the law) under the sentence of death, (Gen. xxii. 4.) whence Abraham received him in a figure, (Heb. xi. 19.) that is, of the resurrection of Christ. And Abraham was commanded to go three days' journey to sacrifice Isaac upon the same mountain (according to the ancients) where Christ was crucified, and where Adam was buried. Again the common epithet of Christ, that is, "the only begotten of the Father, and his beloved Son," were both given to Isaac, (Gen. xxii. 2.; Heb. xi. 17.) For he was the only son that was begotten in that

miraculous manner, after both his parents were decayed by nature. And he was the only son of the promise, which was not made to the seed of Abraham in general, but "in Isaac shall thy seed be called," (Gen. xxi. 12.) "He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ," (Gal. iii. 16.)

And as Isaac, which signifies rejoicing, or laughing for joy, was thus the only begotten of his parents, so Abram signifies the glorious father, and Abraham (into which his name was changed on the promise of Isaac, Gen. xvii, 5, 16.) signifies the father of a multitude, to express the coming in of the Gentiles to Christ, and the increase of the Gospel; whence it is there said to Abraham, "A father of many nations have I made thee, and in thy seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed."

Isaac, who was born by promise of a free woman, represented the Christian church, in opposition to Ishmael, who was born after the flesh, of a bond-maid, and signified the Jewish church under the law. (See this allegory carried on, Gal. iv. 21, to the end.)

7. Jacob, his vision of the ladder, (Gen. xxviii. 12.) shows the intercourse which was opened by Christ betwixt heaven and earth, by his making peace and to this he alludes when he says, "Hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man," (John, i. 15.)

And Jacob's wrestling with the angel, (Gen. xxxii. 24, &c. Hos. xii. 4.) and as it were prevailing over him by force to bless him, shows the strong and powerful intercession of Christ; whereby (as he words it, Matt. xi. 12) "heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." Whence the name of Jacob was then turned to Israel, that is, one who prevails upon God, or has power over him; God representing himself here as overcome by us; and the name of Israel was ever after given to the Church. But much more so when Christ came, as he said, (Matt. xi. 12,) “ From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence," &c. that is, from the first promulgation of Christ being come. Thenceforward the Gentiles began to press into the Gospel, and as by force to take it from the Jews. This was signified in the name Jacob, that is, a supplanter, for the Gentiles here supplanted their elder brother the Jews, and stole the blessing and heirship from them.

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8. Joseph was sold by his brethren out of envy; but it proved the preservation of them and all their families; and Christ was sold by his brethren out of envy, (Mark, xv. 10,) which proved the means of their redemption: and Christ, as Joseph, became lord over his brethren.

9. Moses calls Christ a prophet like unto himself, (Deut. xviii. 18.) He represented Christ the great lawgiver; and his delivering Israel out of Egypt, was a type of Christ's delivering his Church from the bondage of sin and hell.

10. Joshua, called also Jesus, (Heb. iv. 8,) overcame all the enemies of Israel, and gave them possession of the Holy Land, which was a type of heaven: and Christ appeared to Joshua, as Captain of the host of the Lord, (Josh. v. 14.) So that Joshua was his lieutenant representing him.

11. Sampson, who by his single valour and his own strength overcame the Philistines, and slew more at his death than in all his life, was a representation of Christ, who "trod the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with him, but his own arm brought him salvation," (Isa. lxiii. 3, 5.) But his death completed his victory, whereby he overcame all the power of the enemy, "and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made à show of them openly, triumphing over them in his cross," (Col. ii. 15.)

12. David, whose Son Christ is called, speaks frequently of him in his own person, and in events which cannot be applied to David, as (Psal. xvi. 10,) "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor suffer thine Holy One to see corruption;" for David has seen corruption. Christ is said to sit upon the throne of David, (Isa. ix. 7.) And Christ is called by the name of David, (Hos. iii. 5,) and frequently in the prophets.

David from a shepherd became a king and a prophet, denoting the threefold office of Christ, pastoral, regal, and prophetical.

13. Solomon, the wisest of men, his peaceable and magnificent reign, represented the triumphal state of Christ's kingdom, which is described Psal. lxxii. inscribed for Solomon, (there called the king's son) but far exceeding the glory of his reign, or what can possibly be applied to him, (as ver. 5, 8, 11, 17.) But his reign came the nearest of any to that universal and glorious reign there described, particularly in his being chosen to build the temple, because he was a man of peace, and had shed no blood, like David his father, who conquered the enemies of Israel, but Solomon built the Church in full peace; and as it is particularly set down, 1 Kings, vi. 7, and no doubt he was ordered by God so to do," That the house when it was building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was building." Which did denote that the Church of Christ was to be built, not only in peace, but without noise or confusion, as Isaiah prophesied of him, (chap. xlii. 2.) "He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street: a bruised reed shall he not break," &c.

He was not to conquer with the sword, as the Israelites subdued Canaan, but to overcome by meekness, and doing good to his enemies, and patiently suffering all injuries from them. And so he taught his followers, as Saint Paul says, (2 Tim. ii. 24,) "The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men; in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves," &c.

And I cannot think but there was some imitation of this peaceable temple of Solomon in the temple of Janus among the Romans; for that was never to be shut but in time of peace, which happened rarely among them, but three times in all their history. The last was in the reign of Augustus, in which time Christ came into the world, when there was a profound and universal peace: and so it became the Prince of Peace, whose birth was thus proclaimed by the angels, (Luke, ii. 14,) "Glory to God on high, and on earth peace, good will towards men." But to go on :

14. Jonah's being three days and nights in the belly of the whale, was a sign of Christ's being so long in the heart of the earth. Christ himself makes the allusion, (Matt. xii. 40.)

15. But as there were several persons, at several times, representing and prefiguring several particulars of the life and death of Christ; so there was one standing and continual representation of him appointed in the person of the high priest under the law; who, entering into the holy of holies once a-year, with the blood of the great expiatory sacrifice, and he only, to make atonement for sin, did lively represent our great High priest entering into heaven, once for all, with his own blood, to expiate the sins of the whole world. This is largely insisted upon in the epistle to the Hebrews, (chap. vii. viii. ix. x.)

And our deliverance by the death of Christ is represented, as in a picture, in that ordinance of the law, that the man-slayer, who fled to one of the cities of refuge, (which were all of the cities of the Levites) should not come out thence till the death of the high priest, and no satisfaction be taken till then, and then he should be acquitted and "return into the land of his possession." (Num. xxxv. 6, 2528.) And I doubt not but the Gentiles had from hence their asyla or temples of refuge for criminals.

(1.) De. There is a resemblance in these things; but I would not have admitted them as a proof, if you had not supported them, at least most of them, with the authority of the New Testament. And it was not necessary that every one should be named in it; for those that are named are only occasionally; and I must take time to consider of the evidences you have brought for the authority of the New Testament, which you have made full as great, if not greater, than the evidences for the Old Testament.

For

Chr. I may say greater upon this head of prophecies and types, because these are no proofs till they are fulfilled; though then they prove the truth of these prophecies and types; and so the one confirms the other: but the whole evidence of the law is not made apparent till we see it fulfilled in the Gospel. which reason I call the Gospel the strongest proof, not only as to itself, but likewise as to the law; and the Jews, as much as in them lies, have invalidated this strongest proof for the Old Testament, which is the fulfilling of it in the New. Nay, they have rendered these prophecies false, which, they say, were not fulfilled at the time they spake of, and never now can be fulfilled. And as no fact but that of our Christ alone ever had his evidence of prophecies and types from the beginning, so never can any other fact have it now while the world lasts.

(2.) De. Why do you say, Never can have it? For may not God make what fact he pleases, and give it what evidence he pleases?

Chr. But it cannot have the evidence that the fact of Christ has, unless at that distance of time hereafter, as from the beginning of the world to this day. Because God took care that the evidence of Christ should commence fron the very beginning, in the promise of him. made to Adam, and to be renewed by the prophets in all the after ages till he should come and the evidence of him after his coming (in which I have instanced) and which continues to this day, before it can belong to any other, must have the same compass of time that has gone to confirm this evidence, else it has not the same evidence.

(3.) De. By this argument the evidence grows stronger the longer it continues, since you say, that the prophecies of the Scriptures reach to the end of the world, ad so will be farther and farther fulfilling every day.

This is contrary to what one of your doctors has lately advanced, who pretends to calculate the age of evidences,* That in such a time they decay, and in such a time must die. And that the evidence of Christianity having lasted so long, is upon the decay, and must wear out soon, if not supplied by some fresh and new evidence.

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Chr. This may be true as to fables which have no foundation but is that prophecy I mentioned to you of the dispersion and yet wonderful preservation of the Jews, less evident to you, because it was made so long ago?

De. No. It is much more evident for that. If I had lived at the time when those prophecies were made, I fancy I should not have believed one word of them; but wondered at the assurance of those who ventured to foretel such improbable and almost impossible things.

And I should have thought the same of what you have told me of your Christ fore* Craig, Theologiæ Christianæ Principia Matl:ematica, 1699.

telling the progress of his Gospel, at the first so very slender appearance of it, and by such weak and improbable means, as only suffering and dying for it, which to me would have seemed perfect despair, and a giving up the cause. I should have thought of them, as of others, who prophesy of things after their time, that they might not be contradicted while they lived.

But my seeing so much of these prophecies concerning the Jews, and the progress of the Gospel, come to pass so long time after, is the only thing that makes me lay stress upon them, and which makes them seem wonderful to me.

Chr. When the prophecies shall all be fully completed at the end of the world, they will then seem strongest of all; they will then be undeniable; when Christ shall visibly descend from heaven, (in the same manner as he ascended) to execute both what he has promised and threatened. And in the mean time the prophecies lose none of their force, but their evidence increases, as "the light shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

(VIII.) De. I observe you have made no ase of that common topic of the truth and sincerity of the penmen of the Scriptures, and what interest they could have in setting up these things if they had been false; for this can amount, at most, but to a probability: and you having produced those evidences which you think infallible, it might seem a lessening of your proof to insist upon bare probabilities so that I suppose you give that

up.

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(1.) Chr. No, I give it not up, though I have not made it the chief foundation of my argument; and if it were but a probability, it wants not its force, for it is thought unreasonable to deny a flagrant probability, where there is not as strong a probability on the other side, for then that makes a doubt: but otherwise, men generally are satisfied with probabilities, for that is the greatest part of our knowledge. If we will believe nothing but what carries an infallible demonstration along with it, we must be sceptics in most things of the world; and such were never thought the wisest men.

But besides, a probability may be sooner discerned by some, than the infallibility of a demonstration; therefore we must not lay nside probabilities.

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we see many examples of it. But if the facts related be such, as that it is impossible for those who tell them to be imposed upon themselves, or for those to whom they are told to believe them, if not true, without supposing an universal deception of the senses of mankind, then I hope I have brought the case up to that infallible demonstration I promised: and this is the case of the facts related in Holy Scripture. They were told by those who saw them, and did them, and they were told to those who saw them likewise themselves: and the relaters appealed to this: so that here could be no deceit.

De. I grant there is a great difference between errors in opinion and in fact; and that such facts as are told of Moses and of Christ, could not have passed upon the people then alive, and who were said to have seen them. And I find that both Moses, Christ, and the apostles, did appeal to what the people they spoke to had seen themselves.

Chr. With this consideration, their patient suffering, even unto death, for the truth of what they taught, will be a full demonstration of the truth of it.

(3.) Add to this, that their enemies who persecuted them, the Romans as well as Jews, to whom they appealed as witnesses of the facts, did not offer to deny them: That none of the apostates from Christianity did attempt to detect any falsehood in the facts; though they might have had great rewards if they could have done it, the Roman emperors being then persecutors of Christianity, and for three hundred years after Christ: And Julian the emperor, afterwards turned apostate, who had been initiated in the sacra of Christianity, yet could not he detect any of the facts.

(4.) And it was a particular providence for the further evidence of Christianity, that all the civil governments in the world were against it for the first three hundred years, lest it might be said, (as it is ridiculously in your Amintor) that the awe of the civil government might hinder those who could make the detection.

Now, sir, to apply all that we have said, I desire you would compare these evidences I have brought for Christianity, with those that are pleaded for any other religion.

There are but four in the world, namely, Christianity, Judaism, Heathenism, and Mahometanism.

(1.) Christianity was the first; for from the first promise of Christ made to Adam during the patriarchal and legal dispensations, all was Christianity in type, as I have showed.

And as to Moses and the Law, the Jews can give no evidence for that, which will not equally establish the truth of Christ and the Gospel. Nor can they disprove the facts of Christ by any topic, which will not likewise

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