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of Efau: That your firft Meffiah Ben-Jofeph, of the Tribe =of Ephraim, will fight againft him, with 30000 Ifraelites, and fhall have Succefs in the first Battle; but, in the fecond Battle, that your Meffiah will be killed, and his Army routed: That the Angels will take away the dead Body of your Meffiah, and keep it with thofe of the Patriarchs: That after this fhall arife your fecond Meffiah Ben-David, of the Tribe of Judah, and Elias with him; to whom the Jews that are left fhall be gathered, and oppofe Armillus: That God fhall deftroy Armillus, and his whole Army, by Fire and Brimfione, and great Stones caft down upon them from Heaven: Then that Michael fhall found a Trumpet fo loud, as to open the Graves, and raise the Dead in Jerufalem: And that the firft Meffiah, Ben-Jofeph, fhall then be raised, who was kept under the Gates of Jerufalem: That then the Meffiah Ben-David fhall be fent to gather the difperfed of the Jews from amongst all Nations; all of whofe Kings will bring them upon their Shoulders, &c.

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This is the Manner by which you interpret the = Scriptures; feveral of which are quoted in this Relation (as Pfal. cx. 1. Zech. xiv. 3. Ezek, xxxviii. 22. Obad. i. 18.), as being to be fulfilled in the above-mentioned Story of Armillus. Which as it is wholly deftitute of Truth, or even Probability, the mad Excurfion of groundless Imagination, fo does it in no fort come up to the Prophecies in the Holy Scriptures concerning the Meffiah, or the Types of him therein exhibited which are all fulfilled, even to an Iota, in our blessed Lord and Saviour.

Yet you reject him, as not being fufficiently revealed in Scripture; while you think you can deduce from thence this beafly and unworthy Legend of Armillus !

You have been told before of the ftrange Uncertainty you are at in the Marks you have fet up, whereby to know your Meffiah when he comes; which you have reduced all to Success; which cannot be known till the Trial: And that has ended in your Destruction, all the Way hitherto, in the many Experiments you have made

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under

under your feveral falfe Meffiahs. And you can never be fure, in any other who fhall hereafter fet up.

Nay, further, you must be sure to be ruined, by whomfoever fhall first fet up, by this Scheme which you laid down: For your Meffiah Ben-Jofeph must first come, and be flain, and your Armies routed by Armillus. So that it is not Success, but Ruin, that must be the Mark of your first Meffiah. This is great Encouragement for any of you to follow whomfoever fhall fet up next for your Meffiah!

You have had many fuch Meffiabs already: And whenever Ben-Jofeph fhall come, he must be another. unfortunate Meffiah. You must, by your own Reckoning, be once more undone, before your Meffiah BenDavid can come. And when your Meffiah Ben-JoSeph fhall come, and be defeated, how will know, by that Mark, that it is he? That Mark you have had in all the Meffiahs you ever yet fet up: So that you will be fill left to expect a further Deftruction. Thus deplorable is your State!

Befides, which of thefe Meffiabs is it, Ben-Jofeph, or Ben David, to whom all thofe Marks given of the Meiab in the Scriptures do belong, as to the Time, Place, and other Circumftances of his Coming? Or do fome belong to one, and fome to the other? Then you must tell which belong to which; or elfe you may be deceived in both; at leaft, you can be fure of neither.

XV. Neither of them can poffibly now have that Mark infifted upon before, Sect. v. p. 19. &c. of the general Expectation of the whole Earth, not only of the Roman Empire, but of all the Eaft, that a wonderful and extraordinary Perfon fhould be fent into the World about that Time, who fhould be univerfal Monarch of all the Kings of the Earth. And accordingly three Kings came out of the Eaft, to worship our Jefus, guided by the miraculous Leading of a new Star, raifed in Heaven to point him out.

But here is no fuch Expectation now in the World, but only among you. Therefore none of your Mefiahs

can

can come with that Mark, which feems even neceffary to introduce fuch a Saviour into the World.

For, to fuppofe fuch a Perfon defigned by God, from all Eternity, to be univerfal Lord and Saviour of the whole Earth; and that all the Dispensations, which God ever gave to Man, were directed to him, as the Centre and Completion of all, it would feem necessary, proportionable to fuch an Oeconomy, that fo glorious a Perfor fhould be not only foretold, but prefigured in Types and Obfervances: Nay it could not be otherwife, if all the Infiitutions of Religion were to be completed in him; for that would naturally infer that they were, that they could be no more, than Types and Forerunners of him to whom they pointed.

Thus Chrift is faid to have been promifed med xeover Aiavior; which Words, Tit. i. z. if they fhould not reach the Length of our English Tranflation, viz. Before the World began (by. which the Revelation of the great Mafiah must have been made to the Angels in Heaven, before the Creation of Man, or of this lower World); yet this we are fure of, that Mofes has told us, he was pro

mifed to Adam and Eve, and immediately Gen.iii. 15. upon their Fall. Then were Sacrifices in

ftituted, as Types of the great and only Sacrifice which could bruife the Serpent's Head, and make Atonement for Sin: Which, by that Promife, was reserved for the Seed of the Woman; and therefore could not be fulfilled in the Blood of Beafis.

This Inflitution of Sacrifices defcended from that Time, through all the Pofterities of Adam, as a neceffary Part of Religion, and the Worship of God. And even the Heathen retained fo much of their original Infitution, that they looked upon them in the Nature of a vicarious Suffering of others for our Sin: And the Wifeft of them did thence conclude, that there must be fome more noble Sacrifice than that of Beafts, whereby our Sin fhould be purged. This led fome of them to human Sacrifices: But ftill that was not Blood more noble than our own; and they could go no further.

Yet they were in Expectation of the Coming of a glorious Perfon from Heaven, who fhould purge their Sins, and introduce a new and golden Age of Juftice and all Goodness, to extend through the whole Earth: And they generally all over the World did expect him then to come, at that Time when our bleffed Jefus was born, as before has been fhewn.

There never was

But that Expectation is now over. fuch at any time, either before or after that very Time. The Expectation was always, long before that Time: But no Time, except that Time, was the Time expected for his Coming: Therefore none of your Meffiahs, whom you ftill expect, can poffibly enter the World with this neceffary and glorious Mark of the Meffiah. For that Time being over, to which the general Expectation was determined, it ceafed there, and cannot now be taken up again: Becaule, as it could not be begun by Concert, through fo many diftant Nations, who held no Correspondence, and its Beginning was never known: So, for the fame Reasons, it cannot now be begun again: For then the Beginning would be known; and it could not, without a Miracle, gain fuch Acceptance as to become univerfal through the whole World, as it was before.

For

And without this, it could not be faid, Hag. ii. 7. The Defire of all Nations fhall come. how was he their Defire, if they expected

no fuch Perfon to come?

But as neither of the Meffiahs, whom you pretend to look for, are expected by any-body but yourselves; and that not by all, if any of you (as we have Reafon to believe) in good earnest; fo, if they were expected according to the Scheme that you have drawn, the firft would be the Contempt, and the fecond the Terror, but neither of them the Defire, of all Nations.

And neither of thefe Motives, either of Terror or Contempt, would perfuade the Gentiles towards the Fulfilling of what is written concerning the Meffiab: The Gentiles fhall come to thy Light, and Kings to the Brightness of thy Rifing.

Ifai. lx. 3.

This began remarkably to be fulfilled, in the Coming of the three Kings from the Eaft, to the Light, whether literal, of the miraculous Star; or, what that fignified, the Light of the Gospel. And these came to the Meffiah, not as you expect, after being reduced by Force of Arms, and converted by his Success in War,

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but they came to the Brightness of his Rifing, Matth. ii. to his Birth; and adored him in his Swadling-Cloaths. They rejoiced with exceeding great Joy, when they faw his Signal hung out in the Heavens. This Joy could not come from Contempt or Fear: But he was truly the Defire of all Nations: Which neither of your Meffiahs can be, by your own Account of them.

He was not to come as a Terror, but a Light to the Gentiles; as he has proved, not by conquering, but converting of them.

And towards this, it was neceffary that he should come under all thofe Circumftances which were proper for the Obtaining of fuch an End: To perfuade the Gentiles to receive him as a Legislator fent from Heaven, for fpiritual and eternal Purposes; and not with any Defign upon their temporal Government, or for any fecular Bye-ends of his own.

Therefore he ought not to have come in the outward Pomp and Grandeur of the World; but the fartheft·· removed from it that was poffible: Of mean, but vir-. tuous Parentage; his Life to be led in Poverty and Afflictions, and his Death ignominious. He must have come in a corrupt and wicked Age, to oppofe Iniquity in its Torrent. And hence it naturally follows, that he must be perfecuted, even to the Death; and that his Death could not be deferred long, after his beginning to preach publicly for that a wicked World could not long bear it. Which was the Reafon Socrates gave, at his Trial, why he taught privately fo long: For that otherwife he must have perished fooner; and fo have been able to do lefs Good.

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Plato.

Apol. Soc.

And