HIM, pretend to fee objects invifible to man without fome revealing light, think it nothing unnatural to fuppofe our heavenly FATHER to have given no inftruction to His children, neither used any means to raise them when fallen; nay have counted it a fignal token of their freedom of thought to reject that revelation, from whofe tradition, however vitiated, they derive their language, &c. they, less modeft than the heathens, lay claim to; and self-condemned to make an outcry, like a man with a candle in his hand to direc his fteps against the ufe of light, against that, which they themselves allow the benefits of by communicating this traditional information by word of mouth or writing to, and by receiving it from others. Yet as this is no more than was predicted, and as this NAME has been the confufion of that understanding, which imagined it ought not only to think, but also to do many things, contrary to the NAME of JESUS of NAZARETH, so it may not be without its profit for them to attend to the import of what they are militating against. They that have despised HIм may come and bow down themselves at the foles of His feet, as others have, IS. lx. 14.

To the Jews this NAME has a primary respect, and as it is not our province to boast ourselves

against

a See this proved in Dr. Ellis's knowledge of Divine things, Bifhop Browne's Limits of the buman understanding, in Puffendorf, B. 2, c. 3, § 20, Cumberland Orig. p. 451, Clarke's Bayle Lect. vol. 2, prop. 4 & 7, Lock, B. 2. p. 28, Whitby, Vol. 2, P. 69, 93, Hooker's Eccl, poli. b. 1, 13, Bacon's Advancement, &c. p. 469, 470, and Sophron, pref. & V. 3.

against them who are the natural branches, however they curse, but to blefs them with the delivery of the word of grace to turn them from their iniquities, Att. iii. 26. so they fhould in a manner becoming lovers of truth examine what claims the authority of their law and prophets, their Talmud, &c. to be the FEARFUL and GLORIOUS NAME, Deut. xxviii. 58. For they may find they are not called on ta have another faith than thefe had, but to think and act according to them. For they deny not the being of the perfon bearing this NAME, but His cha racter and miffion as THE Messiaн under this NAME. And here I trust they will fee it proved by a fair deduction of the original of the NAME and its interpretation, that it actually has a place in, and a plain reference to the prefigurations and prophecies, and is therefore a loud appeal to the law and the prophets for the truth of His miffion under it, for the dignity of His perfon and for the nature of His offices, and fo is the matchless name which their forefathers were well acquainted with.

Befides the offences given by the worship of images and the finful lives of many, (though no more proofs against the divine authority of the Gafpel than the people's of old were againft that of the law,) a main reason of there being fo few converts is that fome, contrary to the doctrine of the

b The author of Zemach fays "Jesus the Nazarene was "born at BeTH-LeHeм in JUDAH, a league and a half disans "from Jerusalem, in the year 3761 from the creation of the "world," (as he calculates) "and in the 43 (inftead of the 8th) year of the reign of Cafar Auguftus." And the testimony of Jofephus Ant. L. 18, 4. is well known, as well as that of Tavitus in his Annals, B. 15, 6. 44.

the church univerfal and to the matter of fact as believed before and fince MOSES & to Mofes Maimonides and to this day, f and to the necessary nature of all revelation, have maintained there was nothing of the Mess or a future tate in their ceremonial

a

• A&. iii. 24, 13, xxxii. 15, 16, 17, 2, 1 Cor. x. Heb. x. 1 Pet. x. 11, Ignatiu:, Jufi. Mart. p. 364, & al. Irenæus, P. 332, 336, 338, Tertullian, Chryfoftom, Fercm in his Epifle to Paulinus, Auftin, Cyril on Jo. c. xxv. 10, &c. Dr. Cafle with the approbation of the Bijbops of his day in the dedication to his Lexicon, and others cited in. Sophron. Whence we have thef notes on Act. xxvi. in Tyndal's troon of the N. T. 1525, ‹‹ We "ought to preach nothi of CHRIST but that which is in Mo"sand the propi ts Thou shalt note that the N. T. is in"clude in the oL, and the OLD is expounded by the NEW. "For CHRIST our faviour and all His apofiles did the same, "" confyrmynge all their preachings and fermons with the SS of "the O. T."

d Moses knew what he had of GoD were patterns, Ex. xxv. 9, as Heb. ix. 23, x. I, &c.

e He fays the meaning of Prov. xxv. 11, where the words of the prophets spoken according to the two refpects are compared to an apple of gold in filver net-work, is that the exterior fense of "fuch word is good and precious as filver, but that the interior " is yet much more excellent, as gold, to build up them that be"lieve in the fublime myfteries of faith." See the whole as cited from Raymund Martin's Pugio fidei in Sophron, p. 791.

f For in their Talmud in Berachoth, c. 5, we have this affertion, The BLESSED GOD gave to us the forms of the taber"nacle and fanctuary and all their furniture, the candlestick, "table, and altars for [LeZIURIM SecHIIM] « delineating picturing forms or figures, in order to make us un“derstand superior or more excellent truths [ MEM] from "them." And Calvin owns, હે that what was figuratively re"prefented in the Mosaic facrifices is exhibited in CHRIST, the archetype of the figures." Inft. R IT. 766

ceremonial or history. Pofitions that render it ipoffible to prove them obliged by their law to receive JESUS for the CHRIST, but such as lay their authors open to the Jews juft reproach for their ignorance of their national belief, nay of the methods taken by CHRIST and His apoftles to convert them. For He fays for a specimen of the weapons we should use, There is ONE that accufeth you, even MOSES in whom ye truft, Joh. v. 45, HE WROTE OF ME, ver. 46.—they have MOSES and the prophets; let them hear THEM, Luk. xvi. 29. Nay fo full was their evidence thought that He fays, If they hear not MOSES and the prophets, neither will they be perfuaded though ONE ROSI from the dead, ver. 31; which their infidelity after His refurrection was about to give a strong demonftration of. Hence to the first converted JEWS we find HIM opening the SS, what was written in the law of MOSES and the prophets and in the pfalms concerning HIM, and opening their understanding that they might understand the SS, and saying THUS or so it is written, and so or in LIKE manner it behoved CHRIST to Juffer and to rife from the dead, &c. Luk. xxiv. 44, 45, 46, - and these apofiles thus enlightened infifting in their fermons

on

• How contrary this is to the JEWISH creed is plain from their 10 articles and Menaffeb Ben ISRAEL, 1. 3, C. 2, "It is "certain not only from the books of Moses but the prophets "that the refurrection will be connected with the coming of the "MESSIAH," he fays in his Epif. dedicatory "We worship <s one GoD, and after the difficulties of this life look for a "better." In ded. to 1. 3, which we have in common --"For "all love to rise again who with pious fouls have worshipped "the Gop of ABRAHAM, &c.”

on this fpiritual fenfe of the letter, and proving it pointed out the JESUS they preached fo clearly, that myriads were converted, and the others confounded, A&t. ix. 22.

.

Upon their own principles then the iffue is put in this little work, and the like good effects may be the refult of the Jews finding that we continue witneffing to this day both to fmall and great none other things than what the prophets and MOSES faid fhotld come A&t. xxvi. 2t. For I perceive from my conversation with fome of them that they have no other way to evade this argument than by commencing unbelievers, proving the conmection between the faith of bis writings, and that of the words of JESUS, as affirmed Job. v. 46. IF YE HAD BELIEVED MOSES, YE WOULD HAVE BELIEVED ME, FOR HE WROTE OF ME, Bur

IF YE BELIEVE NOT HIS WRITINGS HOW SHALL

YE BELIEVE MY WORDS? 47. the latter is an impoffible cafe, as the former is a necessary confequence. And indeed if it can be proved that the

a 2

very

hAbrevanel de cap. fid. c. 14. fays "The coming of the "Messiaн is fet forth in the law, the prophets and Hagiographi (Joh. Judg. Sam. Chron. &c, for our mafter Moses, and all "the prophets bear witness of HIM, and they who have spoken "by the HOLY GHOST do all agree, foretel and speak of king "Messiaн." Indeed their writings are full of affertions of this kind. And if we exclude these, bow or about what the law, &c. prophecied until JoHN, as affirmed Mat, xi. 13, I am at a lofs to know. Nay the laft Rabbi says in Nishmath Chajim, P. 39, "the refurrection of the dead is one of the capital articles " of our law, and he, who says it is not to be proved from the “law, is an heretic and paft cure, and has no part in the world "to come."