to deny, p. 33.

That any of the Jews,

before the captivity, looked for a deliverer. I know not for what reafons.

There

are fome very ancient teftimonies against this affertion, and, I think, at least of equal credit with his. The Chaldee paraphraft, on Ifai. lii. 13, 14. thus com

כמא דסברו ליה בית ישראל יומין סגיאין,ments

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Behold my fervant the Meffiah fhall profper, he shall be exalted even as the houfe of Ifrael have hoped for him many days. And Chrift told his difciples, Mat. xiii. 7. many prophets and righteous men have defired to fee thofe things which ye fee, and have not feen them; and to bear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. And in another place in particular, John viii. 56, that Abraham rejoyced to fee bis day. that he faw it, and was glad. And one of his apoftles tells us, Job. xi. 41, that Ifaiah faw his glory, and Spake of him. And one ancienter than these, by calling the Meffiah the defire of all nations, Hag. ii. 7. very ftrongly intimates that he was the defire of their own. Which is also pofitively affert

ed

ed by another ancient author; who speaks. of him, as the Lord whom they fought, and that messenger of the covenant, in whom they delighted. Mal. iii. 1. the former paffages fhew the expectations of the Jews before the captivity : The latter, their defires and expectations, just after they were returned from it.

But whether any before the captivity expected a deliverer or not, how came the Jews to form fuch expectations after it; and even to be fo poffeffed with this hope, as to be ready to fall in with every person, that made pretenfions to fuch a character? Was it not owing to the then generally received interpretations of the fcriptures by their teachers, and of confequence, to the plain intimations of the facred writings themselves; and because the current of the Old Testament fcriptures naturally induc'd them to such a perfwafion? If our author will deny that the Old Teftament fcriptures, as they were read and understood after the captivity, had any manifeft reference to a future deliverer; this universal strong expectation

of

of the Jewish nation is perfectly unaccountable upon any other fuppofition, than that of a special influence of divine providence, leading them to fuch a belief, as the time of his appearance drew nearer on. Or if he allows that the Old Testament writings, as they then appeared, did carry plain intimations of the coming of this extraordinary perfon; perfon; and objects that Efdras, and the priests with him, altered and added to the ancient prophecies, and gave them that reference which they now seem to carry to the times of the Meffiab; I would ask him, were those additions and alterations of Efdras, made by the direction of God to him? Then, as they now stand, they are prophecies of the Meffiah, and were to have their full completion in him. But if Efdras did it without any fuch fupernatural Affiftance: then our author muft account for one ve

ry great difficulty; viz. how Efdras could, at fuch a distance of time, pretend to foretel the coming of a deliverer to the Jews, that God had given him no reason to expect, and almoft fix the very time of his appearance, and give the most particu

lar

lar descriptions of his person, doctrines, works, disgrace and glory, and entire undertakings; and how the event fhould fo exactly correspond with such random gueffes and conjectures. Certainly to prophecy, in fo very extraordinary a manner, about fuch a variety of important events, without the gift of prophecy, is a much more unaccountable supposition, than that of the gift of prophecy itself.

СНАР

2,

CHAP. VII.

Of the double Sense of Prophecies.

A M ready to allow the au thor of the Grounds, &c. that the prophecies applied by the New Teftament writers to Chrift might, in

part, relate also to the times

This

wherein they were firft delivered. I think is evidently true of that paffage in Ifaiah: the first part of which, c. 7. belongs more immediately to the deliverance, which was to come to pafs within two years after the birth of Ifaiah's child; the latter part, cap. 9. to the more distant times of the Meffiah, who was to be the glory and support of David's throne and family. And therefore I add,

That