AN ENQUIRY Into the TIME of the COMING of the MESSIAH. SIR, OTHING furprizes me more than that Averfion, which I find many People fhew both in their Words and Actions,,to those who differ in Opinion from them; efpecially when they differ fo widely as the Jews and Chriftians are generally thought to do; which Difference however is not fo great as thofe who are ignorant of the true Chriftian Doctrines generally ima gine. But as I find that you are not of that unmanly Bent of Mind, and that you can bear the Converfation of thofe, who do not think as you do, even in Matters of Religion; I have ventured to set Pen to Paper in order to fulfill my Promife of giving you my Opinion, about the Time of the Coming of the Meffiah, which you think is no where specified in the facred Writings. By the Coming of the Meffiah, I do not mean that Coming of his, which we Chrif tians think to have been fulfilled about 1750 Years ago, a little before the Destruction of the second Temple; and which we imagine to have been expressly foretold in the Books of Mofes and the Prophets, and Hagiographa, and to have been accordingly accomplished by the Birth, and Sufferings and Death of Chrift, or the Meffiah, who then came in a State of Humiliation: But I mean the Coming of the Meffiab in his State of Exaltation and Glory; when the Jews are to be reftored to their own Land; and the Meffiab fhall make a triumphant and a perfonal Appearance on Mount Zion; at which Time the Jews and Gentiles Thall be united into one People under Meffiab, their Shepherd and King; and all Peo ple, and Nations, and Languages fhall ferve and obey him. balM lo Insû Which is an Event that we Chriftians agree with the Jews in the Expectation of, and verily believe it must come to pass fome Time or other, if the Scriptures of the Holy Bible have any Truth in them: And of which we look upon the prefent continued and tedious Difperfion of the Jews, which was foretold by the Prophets to be antecedent thereto, as a living Proof, and an Earneft of its Veracity. * As it may therefore be fome Satisfaction to the Jews in general, and to you, Sir, in particular, to be informed of the Time when their prefent Difperfion is to have an End; I fhall, as far as lieth in my Power, endeavour to do it, by explaining those Prophecies which relate thereto; and which I have in fome Measure already performed, by the Publication of a Treatise entitled† A Differtation on Prophecy,&c. wherein I have fhewed from a joint Comparison of the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Revelations of St. John, take that this great Event is to Place about 250 Years hence. But See Ifa.xi.11, &c.and Multitudes of other Places. + Printed firft in Dublin, and afterwards in London, $749. |