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long before the Coming of Chrift, were fo ufual among the Jews; and the common Places, where he was predicted in the Old Teftament, were fo obvious to all, and fo univerfally explained in the fame Manner; that it was impoffible they fhould have prevaricated in this Matter, if they would. All Parties were agreed in these Things; neither Chrift, nor his Apoftles, find fault with the Jews for their Explications, nor do the Jews blame them for their Citation of Texts, in the Sense their Church had explained them. The Jews at that Time never had the Hardness to difpute, whether those Texts were Predictions of the Meffias? but whether thofe Characters did agree to Chrift or no? for the other Matters were incontrovertibly allow'd, till the modern Jews, and the other incredulous, have put the Chriftians upon the Proof of them.

Phil. But ftill, my good Catechift, you must bring fome more evident Prophefies of Chrift, than these you have alleged, or else, notwithstanding all the Pains you have laid out upon me, I fhall remain in the Depth of Infidelity ftill. Thefe Predictions you have already been difcourfing of, are clear but to fome dull Talmudical Brains, and are proper only to convince the mufty Rummagers among the Rabbins, who are wont to take every Thing for a rare Argument, which they find in an old Hebrew Book. If thefe Paffages are Prophefies of Chrift, they are fuch flender Glances by the By, as People who have not a great deal of Credulity beforehand, will hardly be convinced by. Let us fee, I pray then, fomething more directly prophetick, and which may not look fo like a poetical Ramble of Thoughts, as most of these do. Prophesy of Cred. It is impoffible I fhould have Time to fhew you, the Call of how all the Prophefies, which lie every where scattered theGentiles in the Old Teftament, do exactly agree and con-center in our bleffed Saviour; for that would require a longer Time, than You and I have Patience to talk together, and you may at your leifure fee them made out at large in Commentators upon the Bible, and in the Writings of other learned Defenders of the Chriftian Faith. I fhall

verified in

Chrift.

only

only pick out two or three of the most remarkable Predictions, and urge them home against the Unbelievers.

And first, I fhall begin with the famous företelling of the Calling of the Gentiles, and God's manifefting the true Religion to them. Every one that understands any thing of the Hiftory of the Jews, knows how great an Averfation they bore to the Heathen Nations, and what dreadful Judgments their Prophets, even with a feeming Spirit of Joy, denounce against Edom and Egypt, &c. and yet 'tis plain, that thefe very Prophets, in the fame Breath almoft, in which they are foretelling these horrid Punishments which would befall thofe People, frequently fall into a Strain of predicting the greatest Bleffings upon them; foretelling, That, in a While, they fhould be a People as dear to God as the Jews themfelves, and That they fhould have the true Religion, which they had been fo long Strangers to, planted among them. The very Way of predicting fuch blessed Events to hoftile Nations, is very aftonishing, and without Prece dent; but that thefe fhould exactly be compleated, according to the Prediction, is perfectly miraculous. Suppole thirty or forty bigotted Divines of the Romish Church, that had lived in different Times and Places within these 150 Years laft paft, fince the preaching of Luther, fhould, after having faid Abundance of hard Things against the Proteftants, fay, That, notwithstanding all this, these hated Proteftants fhould be, in a little While, God's peculiar Favourites; That the prefent Form of the Romish Church fhould be perfectly deftroyed, and the Protef tants be all in all; and if there fhall be any Sticklers for the prefent Roman Church, that they should be hated and perfecuted by God, and difperfed over the Face of the whole Earth: And then fuppofing this fhould come to pafs in the next Generation, exactly as thefe Men had foretold in all the particular Circumftances; who would not allow, that these Men had foretold thefe Matters by the Affiftance of a fupernatural Power; or that God had predicted the Downfal of Anti-chrift's Kingdom, by the Lips of his own Priefts; tho' at the fame Time it was their

Defire and Intereft to fupport it? I don't, by this, make any Comparison between the Church of the Jews, and the Church of Rome, in relation to Errors; but only I fay, the Jewish Prophets had as much Averfion to their Heathen Enemies, as the Popish Priefts have to us Proteftants, and therefore could be fuppofed to prophesy nothing in their Favour; and, there being fo many of them of different Times and Places, that all prophefy of the fame Event, therefore it could not be a random Guefs, which might chance to come to pafs: And their Interest being fo much engaged in the Welfare of their own Church, they could never be fuppofed, unless by the particular Interpofition of God, to harbour a Thought of the Alteration, much lefs of the Diffolution of it. But yet, notwithstanding all this, we fee nothing is fo common among all the Prophets, as the Predictions of the Call of the Gentiles, and those other Events which enfued upon it. This is the conftant Theme of all the Prophets, down from Mofes to Malachi. I will move them to Jealousy with those that are not a People, and will provoke them to Anger with a foolish Nation, fays God, Deut. xxxii. 21. That is, the Jews fhall after a time be no longer God's peculiar Favourites; and that formerly beloved Nation, fhall with Envy and Grief behold Nations, which God heretofore, feemed to flight, taken into his particular Love and Favour. Time fhall be, fays holy David, when all the Ends of the World fall remem ber and turn unto the Lord; and all the Kindreds of the Nations fball worship before him, Pfal. xxii, 27. The whole Book of Ifaiah is full of the Predictions of this particular Thing. It fhall come to pass (fays he) in the laft Days, that the Mountain of the Lord's Houfe fhall be eftablished in the Top of the Mountains, and shall be exalted above the Hills, and all Nations fhall flow unto it, &c. Ifa. ii. v. 2 and 3. Arife, fhine for thy Light is come, and the Glory of the Lord is rifen upon thee; and the Gentiles fball come to thy Light, and Kings to the Brightness of thy Rifing, Ifa. lx. v. 12. 3. I was fought of them that asked not for me, &c. Ifa. lxv. 1. Sing, O Barren, for more are the Chil

dren

dren of the defolate than of the married Wife, faith the Lord, Ifa. liv. 1. And more particularly, Chap. xix. 21. The Lord fhall be known in Egypt, and the Egyptians fhall Serve the Lord. And in the 44th Chapter, God promifes to give a Saviour or Meffias, both to Jews and Gentiles, To raife up the Tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preferved of Ifrael: I will also give thee for a Light to the Gentiles, that thou mayeft be my Salvation to the End of the Earth. And in the 42d Chap. fpeaking of the Meffias, God faith, Behold my Servant whom I uphold, &c. I the Lord have called thee in Righteousness, &c. I will give thee for a Covenant of the People, for a Light of the Gentiles, to open the blind Eyes, &c. And he ufhers in this Matter, as if he was faying the most incredible Thing in the World. Behold, new Things I declare, before they Spring forth I will tell you of them, &c. and then he fays, he will bring the Blind by the way he knew not; as before, that the Ifles fall wait for God's Law, v. 4. And fo the other Prophets, In that Day, faith the Lord, I will affemble her that halteth, &c. Mic. iv. 5, 6. And the Lord fhall be King over all the Earth, and in that Day Shall there be one Lord, and his Name one, Zach. xiv. 8. From the rifing of the Sun, unto the going down of the fame, my Name Shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every placé Incense shall be offered to my Name, and a pure Offering; for my Name fhall be great among the Heathen, faith the Lord of Hofts, Mal. i. 11. Now, I pray you, was ever any Thing more plainly predicted than the Manifeftation of the true Religion to the Gentiles, and that by fo many Men who lived in fuch different Ages? If they had lived at one Time, they might have been faid to have complotted together; but for fo many Writers, fo many Ages diftant from each other, all to predict the fame Thing, and that fo unlikely an one to come to pass, as the Čall of the Gentiles; nay, and this thing too to happen exactly as they foretold it; this does unexceptionably fhew, That it was owing only to the eternal Fore-knowledge of God, who was pleafed to reveal the fecret Workings of his

Providence to the Prophets, fo many Ages before it was displayed.

Phil. But it may be, this Prediction, as you call it, was only a lucky Guefs which chanced to come to pass, as, once in a hundred Times, fuch a thing may happen. Call of the Cred. But then how came fo many different Men, at Gentiles no fuch different Times, all to light upon the fame Guefs? Men whofe Prediction only confifts in gueffing, guefs only at fomething that is probable to happen; as that there fhall be Froft or Snow in January, and hot Weather in July; but no one would ever guefs of walking

random

Guefs of the Pro

phets.

Hag. ii. 7. a Prophesy of Chrift.

over the Thames in Summer. Nor would it be less extravagant for a few, two thousand Years ago, to have gueffed at the Call of the Gentiles. For how could it ever come into fuch an one's Head to think, That the prophane Heathen Nations, which he had been taught from his Cradle to have fuch an Abhorrence of, many of which God Almighty had folemnly curfed, and which they were commanded, to the utmoft of their Power, to deftroy; to think, That thefe execrable Nations fhould ever become God's Favourites and People; or, That ever thofe many Countries would condefcend, to receive a Religion from the Jews, who were fo hated and despised by all the World? Thefe were fuch ftrange Things, tho' they did really come to pafs, that could never enter into any one's Thoughts, to imagine before-hand; and therefore could be revealed only by the prophetick Spirit of God.

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Phil. What is your next Prediction?

Glory of the Cred. Why, I think it is a remarkable Prediction of fecond the Prophet Haggai, ii. 7. That Chrift fhould come, Temple, during the fecond Temple. For by the fecond Temple the Jews understood the Adminiftration of Ecclefiaftical Affairs after the Captivity, and not the bare Walls of Zerubbabel's Temple; for tho' Herod the Great in his Time, rebuilt the Temple in a more fplendid manner, it was counted the fecond Temple ftill, in Oppofition to that more famous Oeconomy of Ecclefiaftical Matters, which flourished whilft the first Temple was standing. Now

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