LXVII.

Much less can you refer the application of this prophecy to the Babylonian captivity; for in the captivity of which your prophet speaks, you were not to have a king, a prophet, or priest. In Babylon you had a priest named Josedek, as we perceive in Daniel xiii.; you had kings and princes, priests and sacrifices. All this is corroborated in Baruch i. 10; you had sacrifices and priests, "Facite manna, et offerte pro pec"cato ad aram Domini Dei Nostri." You had a king, namely Joachim; you had princes, namely Zerubbabel and Salathiel; consequently, the prophet did not speak of the Babylonian captivity. This being granted and accepted as certain, as also that the prophet spoke of the Messiah, we will now proceed to the consideration of these signs in Christ Jesus.

LXVIII.

Is this prophecy true? You cannot but acknowledge its authenticity, and that, consequently, the Messiah has already come; for, otherwise, the Messiah could not be expecting you, "expectabo vos." He came, you would not receive him; and for this reason you have neither prince, altar, sacrifice, nor priest; you are to turn to him, "Revertentur;" you are to seek for him, "Quærent Dominum Deum suum.” Have you to return to him? Then you must have turned away from him when he came. Has the prophecy been verified or not? If it has not been verified, how comes it that you did not receive Christ when he came; and that you are since without prince, altar, sacrifice,

priest, or king? seeing that you were to be reduced to this state, in consequence of not accepting the Messiah when he should come. If these things have been already accomplished, how can they ever be accomplished again? Will you reject your Messiah when he shall appear? You will all reply in the negative, consequently in him, the signs of the true Messiah cannot be fulfilled, for the true Messiah when he came was to be rejected by the Jews. Thus if the signs are incapable of being hereafter verified, it is because they have already been verified in Christ. But it is impossible that they can be so again; and, consequently, the Messiah that you expect becomes impossible. On the advent of your Messiah, are you to lose king, sacrifice, and prince? This cannot be; for all these things are left to him to restore to you. Thus, in your Messiah, this sign cannot be fulfilled; therefore Christ, in whom it was fulfilled, was the Messiah, and he whom you look for will never exist. To what end do you expect and hope for a Messiah? Is it to reject him? You have done this already. Is it that you may be left without king, prince, sacrifice, altar, or priest? You have been in this state sufficiently long already; and if on his coming you remain so, the Messiah you expect, as we have fully shown, cannot be the true Messiah.

LXIX.

From Hosea we turn to Malachi to discover another sign of the true Messiah, which has already been fulfilled, and therefore cannot occur again. Malachi i. 10, "Non est mihi voluntas in vobis. Munus vestrum non suscipiam de manu vestra. Ab ortu enim solis

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usque ad occasum, magnum est nomen meum in "Gentibus, et in omni loco sacrificabitur mihi oblatio "munda." When the Messiah comes, God said through the prophet Malachi, the person of the Jews shall no longer be agreeable to me, nor will I desire to receive their sacrifices; for, from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, my name shall be great among the nations (that is among the Heathen), and in every place a pure sacrifice shall be offered to me. This being certain, from prophecy, tell me, are not yourselves and your sacrifices rejected? Have not the Gentiles entered into possession of your heritage? Does God accept any sacrifice, or external worship from you? Is there any part of the world where the converted Heathen do not offer sacrifice to the true God? You can deny no part of this, for it is manifest to the whole world. The whole world knows it to be true, that you do not now offer sacrifice; that it is a tenet of your faith not to offer sacrifice out of Jerusalem. All the world knows that your sacrifices and yourselves are rejected, and that you have neither altar nor priest. All the world knows, as well as yourselves, how you bewail, with unavailing tears, that we Gentiles are in possession of your heritage.-All the world knows that there is no country in the globe, where the converted Gentile does not adore the true God, and offer up sacrifice of the most pure worship and acceptable oblation. Either this prophecy has been accomplished or not. If not, sacrifice cannot exist throughout the world, but only in Jerusalem. This is not the fact; for, although Jerusalem still exists, there is no one place in the Temple where you

are permitted to offer up sacrifice. If the prophecy is not fulfilled, the prophet must have spoken untruly, and you cannot avoid conceding, without falling into a palpable contradiction, that, according to your view, he is mistaken in two events, which he affirms were to occur at the same time. First, That God would reject and put an end to your sacrifices. Secondly, That after this rejection, the Gentiles throughout the world would offer sacrifice. You do not now offer sacrifices, as yourselves allow, and, as you obstinately maintain, neither do we; you must admit one of these two alternatives, either that the prophet has spoken falsely, in declaring, that whenever the sacrifices of the Jews should cease, those of the Gentiles should follow; or else, that yours having ceased, ours have already begun. The first alternative you cannot maintain; consequently, you must acknowledge the second. Besides, if we do not at the present day offer sacrifice, you place yourselves in a dilemma, as it would show that God now receives, nowhere throughout the world, either sacrifice or adoration; for you do not render any, still less the Mahometans. And if you should maintain that we do not, it follows that there are none in the world who offer sacrifice in the true worship of God. This is impossible; consequently, the sign predicted has already occurred, and does not remain to be verified. To what purpose do you hope and seek for a Messiah? Is it to forfeit your right of primogeniture? That is already lost to you. That the Gentiles should possess your inheritance? This they already do. That God should reject you? Already you have been rejected. Are all these

you to lose

things to happen when your Messiah comes? Are you to be rejected? Are your inheritance and your right of primogeniture? You will answer me in the negative; for, that your Messiah is to restore you to all those things of which you have been deprived during your captivity. So that your Messiah, who is to come, will never appear; or if he were to come, cannot be the true one; for, on the advent of the true Messiah, all these things were to be lost to you. Now open your eyes, my brethren, for I have not time to produce other proofs-open your eyes, and yourselves behold the miserable condition in which you now are, and perceive how fully all the signs have been verified in Christ Jesus that the prophets gave for your direction in ascertaining the true Messiah. You have brought your misery upon yourselves, by your refusal to accept the Messiah, and because instead of worshipping his person, you took his life on the cross. This was your sin, and for that you are at this day suffering punishment, as acknowledged by Rabbi Samuel, "Non paveo quod "peccatum, per quod sumus in hac captivitate sed "illud propter quod locutus est dominus per Amos; expavesco, quod iste Jesus sit ille Justus venditus pro argento."

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LXX.

Adopt, then, the conclusion of this eminent rabbi, and at length undeceive yourselves, for it is full time, seeing that your hopes are but an empty shadow, the Messiah you expect a chimera: and any Messiah but Jesus of Nazareth is a dream and an absurdity; for Christ alone possessed all the true qualifications that