Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	ancient_a	king_n	time_n	3,012	5	3.4617	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50462	A conference betwixt a Protestant and a Jevv, or, A second letter from a merchant in London to his correspondent in Amsterdam.	Mayo, Richard, 1631?-1695.; Jacob, John, 17th cent.	1678 (1678)	Wing M1523; ESTC R7786	36,017	42

A CONFERENCE Betwixt a Protestant And a JEVV OR A Second Letter FROM A Merchant in LONDON to his Correspondent in Amsterdam LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the 〈…〉 Imprimatur Geo. Thorp Rmo in Christo P. V. Domino Gulielmo Archiep. Cant. a Sacris Domesticis May 28. 1678. A Conference betwixt a Protestant and a Jew c. Kind Sir I Think my self oblig'd partly by mine own promise and partly by your importunity to give you some account of the second Conference at my House which was managed by Mr. B. and Rabbi J. and I wish you may read it with the same satisfaction that I heard it After the Company met which was now a little augmented by consent and all were seated and composed Mr. B. began and applied himself particularly to Rabbi J. and said Sir you know the business that we are come hither about that it is to debate Whether Jesus of Nazareth be the promised Messias This was demonstrated the last meeting by this worthy person pointing to Father S. by a convincing argument which was drawn from the many infallible Miracles which were wrought by himself in the days of his flesh and by his Followers afterwards in his Name these did amply testifie that he came from God and that the testimony he gave of himself was true else God as was then said would never have set his own seal to it It is indeed the greatest confirmation of any testimony that poor mortals who can't discern the Essence and Being of God are capable of receiving I don't therefore decline this argument because of its insufficiency to prove the matter in question or because any thing hath or can be offered to evade or invalidate the force of it But to the end you may see our faith doth not hang only upon this hinge I shall advance another argument to prove that Jesus of Nazareth in whom we Christians believe is the promised Messias Besides then the testimony of Miracles we have the testimony of the Scriptures to this truth and I remember our Lord himself doth appeal to both these testimonies he says The works he did in his Fathers name did bear witness of him and he bids the Jews to search the Scriptures for they are they which testifie of him And we find in the Acts of his Apostles that one Apollos did mightily convince the Jews and that publickly shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ To this Work then I shall immediately apply my self and as I remember 't is that which I promised and I suppose you expect Rabbi J. assented and said Yes that was the proof they now expected only he hoped that by the Scriptures he meant those that the Christians call the Scriptures of the Old Testament to wit the Writings of Moses and the Prophets and the Hagiographa Mr. B. reply'd that he intended no other for he was not insensible how the Jews would object against any citation out of the Scriptures of the New Testament though he added he could easily manifest if that were now his business that there lay no exceptions against them but what were of equal force against the Writings of Moses and all the Prophets but that he should confine himself to those Scriptures which by the unanimous consent both of Jews and Christians were of Divine authority And from these said he I shall make good these two grand assertions 1. That the promised Messias is long since come And 2. That Jesus of Nazareth is he And if I prove these two points I hope you will give us the right hand of fellowship and become members of the Christian Church Rabbi J. answered that if those two points were clearly and convincingly proved he would presently renounce Judaism and be baptized and become a professor of the Christian faith He only requested that it might not be interpreted an interruption if as particular places were cited and urged he made his objections if he had any because he was old and of weak memory and many things might slip from him if he defer'd the mentioning of them till the end of a long Discourse Mr. B. approv'd of his motion and therefore told him he would purposely make a pause now and then to wait if any thing might be objected or opposed to what he deliver'd Then pulling a Hebrew Bible out of his Pocket he laid it before him and thus proceeded Mr. B. The first thing I propounded to prove is this That the promised Messias is already yea long since come For the evincing of this assertion I might urge many places out of Moses and the Prophets but I shall take up only with three which are most considerable The first is in the Book which we call Genesis in the Hebrew Beresith you will find it in Ch. 49. v. 8 10. there Jacob is giving his Sons his last Benediction and when he comes to Judah he prophesies of him That his Brethren should praise him that his hands should be in the neck of his enemies that his fathers children should bow down before him and farther which is the passage I aim at he adds that the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be I shall first explain these words and then form my argument from them By Judah here is not meant the person but the tribe of Judah Nothing here spoken of Judah was in any measure fulfill'd in his person he liv'd and dy'd in Egypt without preeminence among his Brethren and if you look a little higher you 'l find the things foretold by Jacob were such as concern'd not the persons of his sons but their posterity in the last days By Scepter and Lawgiver is meant the ruling and legislative power that in process of time did settle and center in that Tribe of Judah it began in David who was of that Tribe and continued for some Centuries of years though not without alterations and intercisions though there was some variety in the form of Government sometimes it was Monarchical and sometimes Aristocratical yet still the Law and Polity amongst them was the same By Shiloh is meant the Messias or the promised seed the seed of the Woman this might be prov'd from the signification of the word as also from the following words to him shall the gathering of the people be or as some read it to him shall the obedience of the Nations be Now to whom can this be applied but the Messias unto whom it is elsewhere promised the Nations shall seek The Nations of the Earth were to be blessed in him and the Nations of the Earth were to be gathered to him Of this opinion also were all your ancient Masters Nothing is of greater authority with you Jews than your Targums Ben Vzziel renders it Until the time wherein the King Messiah shall come and Onkelos to the same purpose Until the Messiah

shall come whose is the Kingdom and in that of Jerusalem Your learned Doctors thus render or rather paraphrase upon this Prophecy Kings shall not cease from the house of Judah nor Doctors that teach the Law from his childrens children until the time that the King Messiah do come whose the kingdom is and all the nations of the earth shall be subject to him From the words thus explained I draw this Argument If the Scepter and Lawgiver be departed from Judah then is the Messiah already come but the Scepter and Lawgiver are departed from Judah therefore is the Messiah already come The major proposition is affirmed in the Text the minor can't be denied by you Jews your selves You can't but acknowledg that for about 1600 years there hath been no such thing as a Tribe of Judah in any national or political constitution 'T is evident beyond all contradiction that your whole Nation hath been scattered over the face of the earth and have led a precarious life under foreign and strange Princes and have had for many Generations no Law Government or Authority of your own amongst your selves This is not only confest but lamented by some of your most learned Rabbi's Kimchi on Hosea thus writes These are the days of our captivity wherein we have neither King nor Priest of Israel but we are in the power of the Gentiles and under the power of their Kings and Princes And the great Abarbinel on Isaiah tells us That 't is a great part of their misery in their Captivity that they have neither Kingdom nor Rule nor Scepter of judgment as if he should have said Scepter and Lawgiver are departed The precise time of the departure of all rule and authority from Judah is a little disputed some say it was in the days of Herod an Idumean who rooted out the Macchabees and Sanhedrim whereupon the Jews put on Sackcloth and shaved their heads and lamenting said Wo unto us because the Scepter is departed from Judah and the Lawgiver from between his feet Others say it was at that time when their Country City and Temple were destroyed by Vespasian and Titus and that till then there remains some footsteps of Rule and Authority amongst them I am not concerned at present in this dispute 't is enough to prove what I affirm That it is long since ceased and departed for that being absolutely and irrecoverably gone if there be any truth or certainty in this Text then Shiloh or the Messiah is come which was the thing to be proved Rab. J. The word Shebet which you render a Scepter doth also signifie a Rod and the meaning of the place may be this That the Rod of affliction shall be upon the back of Judah till the coming of the Messiah Mr. B. I will not deny but that Shebet doth properly signifie a Rod or Staff but its metaphorical and most usual signification is a Scepter or Ensign of Rule and Government and so it must necessarily be read and rendered in other places as in Psal 45 The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter And in Numb 24 There shall come a star out of Jacob and a scepter shall arise out of Israel And that the word must be thus read and rendered in the Prophecy before us is plain because it is joyned with Mechbeck a Lawgiver or one that hath authority to write or prescribe Laws to be observed This then is here foretold that there shall be a continuance of a Soveraign power in the Tribe of Judah when the kingly government shall cease till the coming of Christ in the great Sanhedrim and in other Governors And 't is with respect to this Prophecy that God in Psalm 60 and in Psal 108 calls Judah his Lawgiver and in 1 Chron. 28.4 't is said he hath chosen Judah to be his Ruler And that it can't be meant of a Rod of Affliction or Correction is as evident because a-long while after this Prophesie especially in the Reign of David and Solomon the Tribe of Judah was in a flourishing and prosperous condition Rab. J. But if this be meant of the coming of Christ then he was exhibited long before you your selves say he was born for the Scepter departed from Judah in the Babylonish Captivity and afterwards in the days of the Assamonei or the Macchabees Mr. B. The Scepter was not departed from Judah in the Babylonish-Captivity but only suppressed for a season and God by his Prophets did promise the restoring of it after Seventy years and accordingly it was actually restored for after the Captivity the Jews were governed by Dukes who were of the Tribe of Judah as Zerubbabel and his posterity to whom were adjoyned Scribes as Ezrah Nehemiah c. And as for the Macchabees they were of the Mothers side from Judah and with them were joyned the Sanhedrim consisting of Seventy Two Elders most of the Tribe of Judah and family of David who continued in the Government of that people till Herod Aschalonite an Idumean and a stranger did root them all out These things are fully testified by Josephus an approved Historian and other authentick Records R. J. Well Sir you may proceed Mr. B. The second testimony which proves the Messiah to be long since come is taken out of the Prophesie of Daniel You will find in Chap. 9.24 25 26 27 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and prophesie and to anoint the most holy Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks the street shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off but not for himself and the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate even until the consummation and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate I intend not a large explication of this Prophecy this I desire may be attended to That the true Messiah promised unto the Fathers is here spoken of That there is a time limited for his coming and that this time is long since past and gone That the true Messiah is here spoken of is evident He is twice called by that very name and indeed the name of the Messiah as appropriated unto the promised seed is taken from this place or Prophecy alone for it is no