corded in the Gospel are full as great as those in Exodus. II. If the Deifts think to come in here betwixt us, and conclude both to be falfe Miracles, at least that we cannot be fure they are true Miracles, because, as they philofophize, we do not know the Power of Nature, and confequently cannot know what exceeds it; Anfw. 1. This is an Objection not against the Miracles recorded of Mofes or of Chrift, but against all Miracles; and putting it out of God's Power to fhew any Miracle, that ought to be believed of Man: which is a Contradiction to the Principles of the Deifts themfelves, who allow an eternal Being, of infinite Power; and yet, by this, would put it out of his Power to make any external Revelation to Men. 2. But, in the next Place, their Philofophy is not good. For though we could not know the utmost Stretch of what Nature can do, yet it will not follow, that we cannot know what is contrary to Nature, in those Works of Nature which we do know. For example; Though I cannot tell all the whole Nature of Fire, and all its Operations, yet this I certainly know, that it is the Nature of Fire to burn; and therefore, if proper Fuel be adminiftred unto it, it is contrary to the Nature of Fire not to confume it. Thus when Ananias, Azarias, and Mifael, were thrown into the burning fiery Furnace, if that Matter of Fact be true in all its Circumftances, as it is related in the third Chapter of Daniel, we can be fure that there was a Stop there put the natural Power of the Fire; which is a Miracle, We can be as fure of it as of any thing we either fee or hear. So that the fame Scepticism which thefe Men advance againft Miracles, will as much take away the Certainty of our outward Senses; which is the only Poftulatum they would have taken as undoubted; and to which they reduce all the Certainty of which Mankind is capable; giving to themfelves, by their great Senfe, little Preheminence above the Condition of Brutes; to which they would degrade all the rest of the World with themselves. And some. of of them have fhewn their Parts, in witty Satires upon this Subject. But let us leave them with the Company they have chofen, and return. As fure as we can be that it is the Nature of Fire to burn (though we may not know every thing else it can do), fo fure we can be, that it exceeds the Power of Nature to raise the Dead, by the speaking of a Word; to cure the Lame, Blind, &c. by the fame Means, or the Touch of one's Finger, without any other Application. III. Now then, the Miracles recorded of Chrift being as great as thofe recorded of Mofes, and carrying along with them the fame Evidences of their Truth, deduced down from that Time to this, what Reason can be given for the believing of the one, and yet rejecting of the other? There can be none, my Friends; only there are fome Prejudices under which you labour, that stop your Way towards receiving of the Truth, which you cannot deny, as conceiving it inconfiftent with your In"terpretation of fome Texts in your Law. But ought you not rather to fufpect your Interpretations (efpecially where the Words will favourably bear another) than to reject fuch an Evidence as muft undermine your Law itself, and deftroy its infallible Certainty, by difowning the fame, in the only Cafe that carries the fame Demonftration along with it? God cannot contradict himself; and therefore would never have fet his own Seal (which it is not poffible to counterfeit, as before is fhewn) to the Truth of the Gospel, if it did, in the leaft Fot, contradict or destroy the Law. Therefore it behoves you well to confider, whether those Things that you take for Contradictions, are fuch. In order to which, 1. Confider the Difference betwixt deftroying and fulfilling. The Fulfilling of a Prophecy is not its Deftruction, but Completion. So of all Types or Shadows, which point at Things to come: When the Subftance is come, the Shadow ceafes of course. Now, if the Meffiah was prophesied of, and typified in the Law, then his Coming will indeed put an End to thefe; but not by way of deftroying, which would be A 3 contra contradi&ting; but of fulfilling them, which is confirming and attefting to the Truth of them. And I fuppofe you are not ignorant that our Meffiah did not pretend to deftroy the Law, but to fulfil it; and did most ftrongly affert and confirm it, to the leaft Matth. v. Jot; and did fulfil it in every Circum17,18,19. ftance, even to his fuffering without the Gate, to answer the burning of the Body of the expiatory Sacrifice without the Camp, &c. That (as himself faid) all Things might be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Mofes, and in the Prophets, and in the Pfalms, concerning him. Some of which are repeated hereafter, Sec. XII. Luke xvi. 17. 12. Lev. xvi. 2. But I will carry this Argument further. That not only there is no Contradiction to the Law, in the Gospel, but that the Law cannot be true, unless you allow the Truth of the Gofpel. For no other Way poffible is there to reconcile the Promifes made in the Law, but as they are fulfilled in the Gospel; of which let me give fome few Inftances, out of many. 1. The Sceptre fhall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his Feet, until Shiloh come: And unto him fhall the Gathering of the People, or Nations, be. Gen. xlix. 10. This the Chaldee and antient Jewish Interpreters do underftand of the Meffiah. And the Sceptre being long fince departed from Judah, and no other Meffiah come, but our Lord Jefus Chrift, to whom the Gathering of the Nations or Gentiles has been; the Rabbies of the Jews, fince his Coming, have ftrained their Wits, to invent Salvos and Evafions for this Prophecy. Some of them fay, that by Shiloh here was not meant the Meffiah, but Mofes : Others fay, it was the Tabernacle at Shiloh: But others, thinking thefe Interpretations not tenable, and that it cannot be denied to be meant of the Meffiah, have fenced about the word Sceptre, which they contend to be a Rod, not of Rule, but of Correction, which should not not depart from Judah, till Shiloh, or the Messiah, should come. Others, not liking this, allow it to be a Sceptre of Government; but then turn it this Way, viz. That the Sceptre fhould not finally, or for ever, depart from Judah; because the Mefiah fhould come, that is, to reftore it. But this being an altering, instead of expounding the Text, others, feeing there could not be any tolerable Evafion made from the Words of the Text, have boldly adventured upon a new Way of fatisfying it, viz. That the Sceptre or Dominion, is not yet departed, that is, not totally; for that fome of them have, fomewhere or other, fome Share or other of Government, or Jurifdiction, more or lefs; at least some that have, one way or other, defcended from the Tribe of Judah, though it may not be known. I will not take up Time to examine or difprove these Pretences. They carry Guilt in their Face: And being all contradictory to one another, fhew to what a Confufion the Jews are brought, in forcing their Way through the plain Predictions of the Meffiah; of which I will go on to more Inftances. 2. Thus faith the Lord, David shall never want a Man to fit upon the Throne of the House of Ifrael. Neither hall the Priests the Levites Fer.xxxiii. want a Man before me, to offer Burnt-offer17, 18, ings, and to kindle Meat-offerings, and to 26, 21. do Sacrifice continually-Thus faith the Lord, If ye can break my Covenant of the Day, and my Covenant of the Night, and that there should not be Day and Night in their Seafon; then may also my Covenant be broken with David my Servant, that he should not have a Son to reign upon his Throne, and with the Levites the Priefts, my Minifters. Now is all this gloriously fulfilled in our Meffiah, the Son of David; who is made Lord of Heaven and Earth, and of whofe Kingdom there fhall be no End. But without this, how is this Prophecy fulfilled? What Son of David can you produce, who now reigns over the House of Ifrael? And as for the Covenant with Levi, that is as much broken; for, instead of Sacrifices continually, you have not now, nor A 4 have Matth. xxviii, 20. xvi. 18. Limborch. have had fince the Deftruction of Jerufalem, near 1800 Years, any Sacrifice at all. But if you understand thefe Prophecies, as of the Kingdom of the Meffiah, fo of his Priesthood, of which that of Levi was a Type, and fulfilled in it, then is this Prophecy exactly accomplished in the Evangelical Priesthood, which our Meffiab has inftituted; and which, we doubt not, will, according to the utmost Extent of this Prophecy of it, laft as long as the Covenant of Day and Night; that is, as our Meffiab has again given us his Affurance, even unto the End of the World; and that the Gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail against it. Some of the Jerus pretend, that David will be raifed from the Dead, and made immortal, to fulfil this Prophecy. But others, reCollat. p. jecting this Interpretation, fay, that this .73. is to be meant of the Time after the Meffiah, &c. That after the Meffiah fhall come, of the Seed of David, there fhall be no more Want of his Seed, to rule, &c. But the Words of the Text are, that David hall never want a Man to fit upon the Throne of the House of Ifrael: And putting to this, after the Coming of the Meffiah, is adding to the Text. And the like Liberty would leave nothing cer tain in any Text of the Bible, or in any other Writing. The next I produce is, Jai, liii. 3. That moft exact Description of the Death and Sufferings of the Meffiah, with the Reason of it, viz. as an Expiation and Satisfaction for the Sins of the People. And how forced and foreign is that Interpretation which fome of your modern Jews have put upon this Chapter, on purpose to avoid the plain Proof of our Meffiah therein! As if the Perfon there spoken of were not any particular Perfon, but only a Defcription of the People of the Jews in the Name of a Perfon; of their prefent Difperfion through all Nations; with the Contempt and Mifery which they fuffer; and withal, their making many Profelytes to their Religion, in this their Difperfion. For |