Aggredere O magnos (aderit jam tempus) honores, Enter on thy high honour, now's the time, And, as if Virgil had been learned in the doctrine of Christ, he tells, that thefe glorious times fhould not begin immediately upon the birth of that wonderful perfon, then expected to come into the world; but that wickedness fhould ftill keep its ground in feveral places. Pauca tamen fuberunt prifca veftigia fraudis. Yet fome remains fhall ftill be left Of ancient fraud, and wars fhall ftill go on. Now how Virgil applied all this is not the matter; whether in part to Augustus, or partly to Pollio, and partly to Saloninus his fon, then newly born; but it fhews the general expectation that there was at that time of the birth of a most extraordinary perfon, who fhould introduce a new and golden age, and both reform and govern the whole world: juftly, therefore, called by the prophet the "defire of all nations." Now the Sibyls had pointed out the time to be then at hand. And if it should be supposed (though there is no reason for it) that the Jews had forged or interpolated thefe oracles, and made them speak thus in the language of the holy Scriptures, yet this ftill fhews, that the Jews, at that time, did fo understand the prophecies of the Old Teftament, concerning the Meffias, as that then was the time prefixed for his coming. But if these prophecies of the Sibyls be what they speak themfelves (against which nothing but prefumption has yet appeared) then can they not be denied as a demonftrative proof of our Jefus being the Meffiah; for they defcribe him fo perfonally and fo plainly, that this is made the cause of fufpicion against them; as if they could not be genuine, because they speak fo very plainly and particularly of Jefus Chrift... This has carried fome Chriftian critics too far, to reject, upon this only prefumption, the authority of the Sibyls. And yet they have not (not any of them that I can find) taken into due confideration, the answer which Origen gives to this fame objection of theirs, for it is not a new one. It was first objected by the Heathens. Celfus had recourfe to this, alleging, that the Christians had interpolated and added several things to the prophecies of the Sibyls. But Origen* appeals to the ancient copies of them, and challenges Celfus, or any of the Heathens, to fhew what was added; which, he fays, they could not inftance; and that certainly they would if they could. Yet fome of our critics have declared themselves, in this, for Celfus against Origen; but without answering of Origen's argument, which Celfus could not. And it is not to be imagined that Origen would have put the iffue upon fuch a plain matter of fact, if it had not been true; and which could have been so easily disproved. But this especially is to be confidered, that the primitive fathers of the church, as Juftin, Clemens, Theophilus, Athenagoras, Origen, Eufebius, Lactantius, &c. did lay fo great, ftrefs upon the Sibyls, and quoted them fo often against the Heathens, that they called the Chriftians Sibyllanifts. Clemens Alexandrinus, in his Stromat. 1. 6. quotes St. Paul (fome work of his now loft) in his difputations with the Gentiles, referring them to their own Sibyls. And he lived near to the time of St. Paul: fo that we muft fuppofe this to have been at least the current opinion of that early age of St. Clement. This is obferved, obiter, for the fake of fome Chriftian critics, who feem not to have a due regard for -the authority of the primitive fathers of the church. But as to what concerns you Jews, and the present subject we . are upon, there can be no difpute, by what is quoted out of the Sibyls, by feveral authors, before Chrift came, that they spoke of a wonderful perfon to appear in the world, who fhould rule all nations and that it was understood, as well by the then Jews, as Romans, to be about that time in which our Jefus was born. * Αποφηνάμενος, ὅτι παρενεγράψαμεν εἰς τὰ ἐκείνης πολλὰ καὶ βλάσφημα· καὶ μὴ ἀποδείξας μήδ' ὅτι παρενεγράψαμεν. ̓Απέδειξε δ ̓ ἄν, εἰ τὰ ̓Αρχαιότερα καθαρώτερα ἐδείκνυε, καὶ οὐκ ἔχοντα ἅπερ οἴεται παρεγγράφθαι, μὴ ἀποδείξας δὲ μήδ' ὅτι βλάσφημά ἐστι Tata. Orig. contra Celf. 1. 7. 1 Now there could be none but Jews or Heathens to have made thefe prophecies of the Sibyls, (there being no Chriftians then in the world) and, as faid before, it is all one, as to our prefent ar gument, whether the one or the other made them; for I bring them now only to fhew, that there was a general expectation of the Meffiah at that time when our Jefus was born; and I have fhewn that it was univerfal all the world over; the greatest part of which was then under the Roman government; who likewise testify, that all the eastern part of the world had the same expectation. And that, not only at that time, as if then put into their heads (by the craft or artifice of the Jews, as fome fanciful men have pleased themselves to imagine) but that they had it all along as an ancient and undoubted tradition, written in the books of fate and that it should come to pass at that very time. And never but at that time was there any fuch general expectation. This univerfal impulfe (if we will call it no more) which was imprinted, in whatever manner, upon the minds of the whole earth, to expect a glorious and wonderful Deliverer, Reftorer, and King of the world, at that time, when our bleffed Lord and Saviour was born, (and never before or fince) cannot be made of lefs account, than a very extraordinary, and even divine apparatus, or preparing of the way, whereby to introduce the Son of God with the general expectation and commotion of whole nature, into the world! And, among all thefe, the expectation was moft firm, as there was most reafon, with you, the Jews, who had the lively oracles of the holy Scriptures; which punctually pointed out the time wherein God had decreed to fend his great Meffiah into the world. This appears, with a flagrant evidence, in your setting up, at that time, this and that perfon for the Meffiah (as I have before fhewn out of Jofephus) and fo continued to the destruction of Jerufalem. And fince that time you have not defifted looking out for your Meffiah, and following every impoftor, that with any, or no pretence fet himself up for it; as our Lord, your true Meffiah, has foretold to you, that many would come in his name, saying, I am Chrift. "Behold (fays he) (a) I have told you before;" but you would not believe; and it was turned to your destruction. (a) Matth. xxiv. 2 5. VI. The Hiftory of these Falfe Meffiahs has been lately wrote by Johannes à Lent, and printed at Herborn 1697, with fufficient vouchers from the rabbies of the Jews themfelves. Let me but name them, to fhew the fucceffion of delufion in the Jews. You have heard before, out of Jofephus, the multitudes of falfe Meffiahs before the destruction of Jerufalem. A. C. 114, you fet up another, in the reign of Trajan one Andrew, which occafioned the destruction of many thousands of you. Again, in the reign of Adrian, another, whom ye called Bar Cohab, i. e. the fon of a ftar; alluding to the ftar of Jacob, Num. xxiv. 17. And again rebelling under this Meffiah, caufed a moft dreadful deftruction amongst you, infomuch that, as yourfelves have told it in your own books, there was twice the number of Jews that perished upon this occasion more than all those that came out of Egypt; and that you fuffered more under Adrian than under Nebuchad nezzar or Titus. When you were at last undeceived (too late) then you changed the name of this falfe Meffiah, from Bar Cochab the fon of a ftar, to Bar Cofibah, i. e. the son of a lye, as being a falfe Meffiah. And how oft have you been deceived fince? In the year of Chrift 434, in the reign of Theodofius the younger, another Pfeudo-Meffiah arofe in the island of Crete, who faid, that he was Mofes, and fent from heaven to carry the Jews in Crete, on dry ground, through the fea, and perfuaded feveral of them to throw themselves into the sea. In the year of Chrift 520, another Pfeudo-Meffiah, one Dunaan, arose in Arabia, and, with the Jews who followed him, fet upon the bishop and Christians in Negra, and committed great outrages, till he was deftroyed. A. C. 529, the Jews and Samaritans in Paleftine were feduced into rebellion by Julian, a' Pfeudo-Meffiah, which occafioned the deftruction of many of them. And when Mahomet appeared, about the year 620, the Jews flocked to him, as their Meffiah, to which he at first pretended; and they ftuck to him, till, as fome fay, they faw him eat camel's blood; or, as others tell, for other reafons, they left him. Indeed he left them, and fet up other pretences. After, A. C. 721, they followed a certain Syrian, who faid that he was Chrift. A. C. 1137, they followed another in France, which occafioned their banishment out of that country, and the flaughter of great numbers of them. The year following, viz. A. C. 1138, in Perfia, a falfe Meffiah taking arms, brought great mifchiefs upon the Jews there. A. C. 1157, the Jews rifing under another Meffiah, in Spain, had well nigh all of them been cut off. A. C. 1167, they fuffered much under another Messiah, in the kingdom of Fez. And the fame year, under another in Arabia, who gave for a fign, that after his head was cut off by the king of Arabia, he would rife to life; which he did not: but by this escaped a more cruel death. And not long after, in the fame 12th century, they fuffered much by another beyond Euphrates; who gave for his fign, that he would go to bed at night leprous, and rise sound in the morning. About the year 1174, another rofe in Perfia, and led the Jews into rebellion; which occafioned great destruction among them. And one David Almufar occafioned the like to them in Moravia and Germany. And again, in the fame century, another Pfeudo-Meffiah. All mentioned by Maimonides, and other Jewish rabbins. Who likewife tells us of that most famous Pfeudo-Meffiah in Perfia, called David El David, alias David Alroy, about the years 1199 or 1200, a great magician, who deluded many of the Jews. A. C. 1222, many Jews followed a false Meffiah in Germany, whom they called the fon of David: and the fame year expected their Mefliah to be born of a woman, then with child, at Worms; but it proved a girl. A. C. 1465, when the Saracens made fuch inroads upon Chrif tendom, the Jews then thought their Meffiah was come to fight their battles. And the fame year rabbi Abraham Avenaris, a Jewish aftrolo ger, from the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the fign pifces, foretold the coming of the Meffiah to be then at hand. And afterwards R. Aberbanal, in his commentary upon Daniel, p. 84, 86, gathered the time of the Meffiah's coming from the like conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in pifces. About the year 1497, the Jews were again deceived in Ishmael Sopus, whom they took for their Meffiah, who having got, toge ther an army of vile and profligate men, purfued his victories fuccefsfully through Media, Parthia, Perfia, Mefopotamia, and Armenia. But at laft cheated the Jews, and fet up a new fect for Mahomet.. 1 |