the very reasons of that for which you hope; and thus, although no longer in a position to expect Him, inasmuch as he has already appeared, you persist, like desperate men, in hoping against all hope. God promised you a Messiah who was to come, and who accordingly came: you, in your despair on seeing that he has come, obstinately continue to hope for a future Messiah, who, it is impossible, in the nature of things, can come, and yet, in spite of this absolute impossibility, persist in hoping for him, because you cannot bring yourselves to lay such hopes altogether aside. According to the most approved chronology, since the time of Abraham, when God more explicitly promised you the Messiah, you have had three thousand six hundred and fifteen years of hope, and you are not yet tired; for you still go on hoping, and will continue to do so until the end of the world. Courageous must be the Jewish mind, that can thus hope on untiringly. Cruel Messiah, who has so long delayed, and will so long delay to appear! O enduring people, that can still so perseveringly wait for the Messiah ! But hope as much as you please, you may undeceive yourselves; for so long as you will not have done with your hopes, and confess that beside the person of Jesus Christ no other Messiah is possible, your redemption will not take place, your captivity will continue, and your chastisement be prolonged.

IX.

"Nec est qui eruat; nec qui dicat: Redde." Now upon the face of it, this passage of Isaiah evidently implies that it is to be understood as relating to

the Jews and the punishment which they were to undergo in their final dispersion. For the prophet affirms that the Jews will not have a redeemer till they are freed from their present captivity; and if any one of us ask you how long your captivity is to endure, you can only reply, that so long as the Messiah whom you expect does not come, you will continue to undergo your present sufferings. So that if the Jews place their hope of redemption in a future Messiah (and they are still expecting the Messiah), why does the prophet say that they are not to have redemption? For the precise reason that the Jews expect their redemption from a future Messiah, they must remain without relief; for no new Messiah will ever be sent to them; and as such a Messiah is impossible, so is the relief impossible that the Jews expect therefrom.

X.

The Messiah the Jews expect is impossible, from the very nature of the predictions which the Jews persuade themselves that the Messiah has to satisfy. It is impossible, from the time in which he was to come, and also from the signs having been already verified in Christ, which cannot be again fulfilled in any other.

It is impossible, from the time in which he is to appear; for the time was already passed when Christ came, and it is impossible that a time which is past can return again. It is, moreover, impossible from the nature of the predictions which the Jews persuade themselves that the Messiah has to satisfy, since these very predictions prove that in the Messiah they have been already fulfilled; and, considering this impossi

bility, the Messiah whom the Jews expect is no other than a mere chimera which their obstinacy has invented. The prophet, in order to convince the Jews that their hope was a fable, and the object of their desire but a dream, told them that the more they hoped, the longer it would be before they obtained the object of their hope, and the accomplishment of their wishes: "Nec est qui eruat: nec est qui dicat: Redde."

XI.

I shall next proceed to prove that the hope of the Jews is self-destructive, for that they are expecting a Messiah whom they ought not, inasmuch as, on every rational principle, a Messiah such as the Jews expect is an impossibility. The conclusion must be apparent to those who are sincere in their desire to embrace the truth, as they will be unable to resist the force of the evidence which I shall adduce. I might well be discouraged and disheartened by the hopelessness of reaping any fruit from my labours, seeing how inadequate my arguments must be to destroy your stubbornness, when Christ with his miracles could not vanquish the obstinacy of your predecessors. surely the human understanding cannot for ever resist the force of truth, however unfavourable the inclination may be to its reception. I will address myself to your judgment and not to your will: I say, not to your will, because words cannot conquer obstinate determination; but rather to your judgment, because the understanding must give assent to truth. Only attend to me with a pious affection of the will, without previous obduracy

But

of heart, and your judgment cannot fail to be so convinced as to cause you to abjure sincerely your error, and renounce your opposition. We will now enter upon the discussion, and begin by adducing the particulars that were predicted concerning the Messiah.

XII.

In order to prove to you the impossibility of the Messiah whom you expect, by the actual predictions from which you infer what the Messiah is to be when he comes, and to make apparent to you the fallacy of your expectations, it is requisite to ask you whether you expect a Messiah such as God had promised to you through His prophets, or whether you expect one fashioned after the fancy of a few ignorant men, who deceiving themselves and you, have invented an absurd Messiah, and presented him as the true one to your credulity?

If your expectations were of the first kind, your hope would be just, supposing that the Messiah had not already sanctified the world with his presence. If your expectations are of the latter kind, you are mad; inasmuch as you set in opposition to God's truth, the idle story of a few idiots, who seek to amuse you with delusive hopes. As men of sense, I know you will answer me, that the Messiah whenever he should appear would be such as God revealed through His prophets. Tell me now what is to be the Messiah whom you expect? Is he to be a mere man like Moses, who delivered you from the Egyptian captivity, or like Zerubbabel who redeemed you from the Babylonian bondage? I well know that you, or your teachers

for

you,

will answer me that the Messiah will possess far higher attributes, as he will deliver you from your present oppression, and restore you to a more glorious freedom. The same all your rabbins affirm in their Talmud, see Sanhedrin, chap. Helek.

XIII.

Again I ask you, The Messiah whom you still expect, presuming him more powerful than Zerubbabel or Moses, is he to be a mere man as these two were, or will he be man and God, as these two were not? On the reply to this, depends the truth of our faith, and the falsity of yours. A modern sect among your rabbins advises you to give no reply to this question (and they do well, for your reply would infallibly enable us to convince you of your error), and to this end they persuade you that when you cannot get excused from making a reply, you should deny the point of a Messiah altogether, saying that he never came, nor ever will come, for that the advent of the Messiah is not an article of your faith, and that Judaism does not consist in that expectation, but in the true observance of the law of Moses, which is the only thing obligatory on the Jews.

XIV.

To understand correctly this point, it is requisite to know that, with regard to the Messiah, the Jews of the present day are divided into two entirely different and opposite opinions. Some say, and that is the general opinion among your wretched people, that the Messiah has not yet come. Others assert that he