come to restore presently the kingdom unto Israel; and, in a word, following their own desires and imaginations, they confounded Christ's first coming with the second; and then confirmed themselves in this mistake, partly, because the Prophets seemed to describe the kingdom of the Messias very carnally, partly, because they knew not what to think of a celestial or spiritual kingdom, such as his should be, who was to sit on the throne of God. And these false conceits of theirs, joined with the worldly interests of their leaders, brought them to reject the true Messias at his coming.

But after all, it is certain, 1. That the contrary opinions, concerning the spiritual sense of the prophecies, was the constant ancient doctrine of their nation. 2. That those Jews that were converted to Christianity by the ministry of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, were converted upon these maxims, which were then the maxims of the wisest and the religiousest part of their nation. 3. That the Apostles in their writings, as well as Christ Jesus in his discourses, cited the texts of the Old Testament according to the commonly received sense of the synagogue; and in truth the authority of these proofs in that received sense did not a little contribute to the conversion of both Jews and Gentiles.

In order to make the reader of my mind, I entreat him to take in good part my entering a little further into the examination, of what the most studious Jews in the holy Scriptures do commonly propose under the name of tradition. Let them be looked upon by some men as whimsical authors, that busy themselves in inquiries altogether vain and fruitless; yet it is no hard task to vindicate them from this hard imputation. 1. I have this to say for them, that that which appears so fantastical, (because not understood by most of those which have been accustomed to the Greek methods of teaching,) ought not therefore to be despised and

wholly rejected. None but fools will think this a sufficient reason why all Pythagoras's doctrines ought to be contemned; because that he having been a scholar of Pherecydes the Syrian, and other learned men in Egypt and Chaldea, did borrow thence his way of teaching theology by symbols, which is attainable only by few, and those of no common capacity.

2. I observe that most of the true Jewish doctors that followed the tradition of their schools, had this design principally in their eye, to make men fully understand the secrets of God's conduct for the restoration of fallen mankind. To this in particular they bend their thoughts, and in this they endeavoured to instruct their readers, explaining to them, according to this sense, some places of Scripture, which at first sight seem not immediately to have a regard to so important a subject.

3. I observe that oftentimes, where they attribute these interpretations of Scripture to a tradition delivered down to them from their fathers, it is only in order to render their reflections on the Scriptures so much the more venerable to their hearers. For it is plain enough in some places, that an attentive meditation on the words might have discovered the same things which they refer to tradition.

1. i. p. 628.

For example. They remark that God said concerning Adam, Gen. iii. 22. And now lest he stretch See Reuchout his hand, and eat of the tree of life, and live in Cabala, for ever; therefore God, as it follows, drove him out of Paradise. From hence they infer, that God gave Adam hopes of becoming one day immortal, by eating of the tree of life, which they thought should be obtained for him by the Messias. Now it appears that our blessed Saviour did allude to this common opinion of the Jews, which was then esteemed as a tradition, Rev. ii. 7. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree that is in the

D

Reuchl. ib.

p. 629.

paradise of God. And this notion is repeated, Rev. xxii. 2, 14.

Again they remark that God said, Behold, Adam is become like one of us, Gen. iii. 22. And they maintain that he speaks not this to the angels, who had no common likeness to the unity or essence of God, but to him who was the celestial Adam, who is one with God. As Jonathan has also observed in his Targum on these words of Genesis, calling him the only-begotten in heaven. Now it is plain that St. Paul has described Jesus Christ as this heavenly Adam, 1 Cor. xv.

They assert that the first prophecy, Gen. iii. 15. was understood by Adam and Eve of the Saviour of the world; and that Eve, who was full of the prospect of this, being delivered of her first son, she Gen. iv. 1. called him Cain, saying, I have got a man, or this man from the Lord; believing that he was the promised Messias. They tell us farther, that Eve being deceived in this expectation, as also in her hopes from Abel, asked another son of God, who gave her Seth; of whom it is said, that Adam begot another son after his own image; another with respect to Abel that was killed, not to his posterity by Cain, for they did bear the image of the Devil, Reuchl. ib. rather than that of God. They maintain the name of Enos to have been given to Seth's son upon the same account, because they thought him that excellent man whom God had promised. They make the like remarks on Enoch, Noa, and Sem, and Noah's blessing of Sem they looked on as an earnest wish, that God in his person would give them the Redeemer of mankind.

p. 630, et 631.

Reuchl. ib. p. 632.

They affirm that Abraham had not been so ready to offer up his son Isaac a sacrifice, but that he hoped God would save the world from sin by that' means; and that Isaac had not suffered himself to be bound, had he not been of the same belief. And

they observe that it was said to Abraham, and afterwards to Isaac, on purpose to shew them the mistake of this opinion, In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. A plain argument that the Jews anciently thought that these words did relate to the Messias, as did also St. Paul, Gal. iii. 16.

They maintain, that Jacob believed that God Reuchl. ib. would make good to him the first promise made to Adam, till God undeceived him by inspiring him with a prophecy concerning Judah, Gen. xlix. 10. and by signifying to him, (which things also Jacob tells his sons,) that the Messias should not come but in the last days, ver. 1. when the sceptre was departed from Judah, and the lawgiver from between his feet, ver. 10.

They declare that ever since this prophecy, the Reuchl. ib. coming of the Messias for the redemption of mankind has been the subject of the discourses of all the Prophets to their disciples, and the object of David's and all other prophets' longings and desires.

They maintain that David did not think himself Reuchl. ib, to be the Messias, because he prays for his coming, P. 634. Psalm xliii. 3. Send out thy light, i. e. the Messias, as R. Salomon interprets it. And from hence they conclude, that he speaks also of the Messias in Psalm lxxxix. 15.

They did think Isaiah spake of him, ch. ix. 6. So R. Jose Galilæus præfat. in Eccha Rabbati, as it is to be seen in Devarim Rabba Paras. лNI at the end of it; and in Jalk. in Is. §. 284. And indeed what he there saith could not be meant of Hezekiah, who was born ten years before; nor was his kingdom so extensive nor so lasting, as is there foretold the Messias's should be, but was confined to a small part of Palestine; and ended in Zedekiah, one of his successors, not many generations afterwards.

And it is the general and constant opinion of the

Jews, that Malachi, the last of the Prophets, spake of him, ch. iv. under the name of the Sun of Righteousness for this see Kimchi.

4. It ought to be well considered, that we owe the knowledge of the principles on which the Holy Ghost has founded the doctrine of types, to the Jews, who are so devoted to the traditions of their ancestors; which types, however they who read the Scripture cursorily, do ordinarily pass by, as things light and insignificant; yet it is true what St. Paul hath said 1 Cor. x. 11. that all things happened to the fathers in types, and were written for their instruction, upon whom the ends of the world are come, or who live in the last times, as the economy of the Gospel is called, and the last days by Jacob, Gen. xlix. 1. That is, acknowledged by the wise men of the nation in Shemoth Rabba Parasha 1, and by Menasseh ben Israel q. 6. in Isaiah, p. 23.

Indeed the Jews, besides the literal sense of the ancient Scriptures, did acknowledge in them a mystical or spiritual sense; and this St. Paul lays down. for a maxim, 1 Cor. x. 1, 2, 3, &c. where he applies to things of the New Testament all these following types; namely, the coming of Israel out of Egypt, their passage through the Red sea, the history of the manna, and of the rock that followed them by its water.

We see in Philo the figurative sense which the Jews gave to a great part of the ancient history: he remarks exactly, (and often with too much subtilty, perhaps,) the many divine and moral notions which the common prophetical figures do suggest

to us.

We see that they turned almost all their history into allegory. It plainly appears from St. Paul's way of arguing, Gal. iv. 22, &c. which could be of no force otherwise.

We see that they reduced to an anagogical sense