Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

why the Scribes fay, that Elias muft firft come; that is, be fore the Refurrection, and reftore all things. Verf. 12. he anfwereth, Elias verily cometh first, and reftoreth all things.

Malachi, Ch. 4. ver. 5, 6. I will send you Elias the Prophet, before the Coming of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord, St. John is called by Malachi, My Meffenger, who was to be fent during the ftanding of the Temple, bur Elias the Prophet will be fent after the Jews Return into their Countrey, and a little before Chrift's Second Coming, v. 6. to turn the Hearts of the Fathers to the Children, and the Hearts of the Children to the Fathers, left he come and fmite the Earth with a Curfe; that is, utterly defroy the Nation of the Jews, who were returned. Then Elias will reconcile the Jews to Chriftianity; concerning which, the Fathers and their Children will then contend, as our Saviour predicted.

St. Auftin, de Civitate Dei, cap. 29. faith, that Elias fhall Convert the Jews unto Chrift, before the Judgment, by giving the Law of Mofes a fpiritual Expofition; and he will fully explain the Prophecies concerning our Saviour. This, St. Auftin fays, is commonly believed concerning Elias, and taught by us Chriftians, and is held as a Point of infallible Truth.

Origen, Chryfoftom, Gregory Nyffenus, and moft of the Fa thers, believe, that Elias, (who is called Thesbites in the Septuagint) will come before the Second Coming of Chrift; and this Opinion they confirm by Ecclefiafticus, ch. 48. v. 19. Elias was ordained to turn the Hearts of the Fathers to their Sons, and to restore the Tribes of Jacob. And this diftinguiThes the Thesbite from St. John; because the Tribes of Jacob will not be restored till towards Chrift's Second Coming. He muft then reftore all things, the Jews to their Countrey, the Faith in Chrift to thofe of that Age, and deftroy Antichrift by Fire from Heaven: But St. John only preached Repentance, and baptized those who believed the Meffiah was then to come; and thus he prepared the Way before Chrift, at his Firft Coming.

Note, In Chapter the Firft, Idumaa is threatned with perpėtual Deftruction. That Land is called a dreplas; and the People with whom the Lord is angry for ever. These

are

are the Saracens in Arabia, where Antichrift muft rise, one of the Pofterity of Efau, as well as Ifmael, will command and inhabit Arabia. And Pfalm 83, thus diftinguishes the Enemies of Judea, the Ifmaelites, Edomites, the Hagarens. The Chaldee Paraphrafe in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, Ch. 4. has these Words; Liberaberis per manum Meffle & Elia facerdotis magni, & non addet ultra dominus, ut tranfmigrare faciat te, & in illo tempore vifitabo iniquitatem tuam, filia Edom; & venient Perfa, & anguftiabunt tè, & defolabunt te.

1

CHAR

CHAP.

IV.

An Answer to the Objections against Efdras's Prophecy.

T is objected, that this Prophecy was written by a converted Jew, in the latter End of the Firft Century; and that it belongs to the Firft Ages of Chriftianity; that Babylon is Rome, where the Jew was Thirty Years after the Deftruction of Ferufalem,

My Answer is, I have given a fufficient Teftimony, Juftin and Clemens Alexandrinus, in the Second Century, who allow Efdras to be a Prophet, and quote part of this Prophecy; and they must have given fome Account of this Book's being a Fiction of fome Jew. They had more Authors than are now extant; and better knew the common Tradition about this Author. Picus faith, that this Book of Efdras is the Firft of the Seventy Books of the Jews Cabbala. A converted Jew muft know, that Chrift's Birth and Death were paft: But Efdras fays, it was to come. Befides, the Armies which were to afflict Babylon, muft deftroy Afia and Syria; and for that Reason Babylon cannot be Rome: The Dragons of Arabia, and the Carmanians rose in the Eaft, and no way relate to Rome.

The Copying of the Scriptures, were those burnt in the Babylonian Captivity, and not the Apoftles Writings.

The Vifion of the Eagle is the Roman Empire; and the Three Heads of the Eagle were the Firft States of that Empire after the Firft Century, and are True Prophecies now fulfilled.

The

The Eagle was the old Roman Enfign; and the different States of the Roman Empire are elegantly exprefs'd by the Eagle's Wings, Feathers, Heads and Claws.

The Return of the Jews and Ten Tribes from the Eaft, cannot relate to Chriftianity in the First Century.

As to the Latin Copy being imperfect, fo is the Arabian and fince they difagree, both of them must be taken from fome Eaftern, or Greek Original. The Firft of Efdras Apocrypha is in Greek and Syriack; and the Second is evidently a Tranflation from the Greek, as may be prov'd by the Greek Words in the Latin Copy; Ch. 1, Neomenia; ch. 2, Paufa; 5, Chaos; 8. Plafma, Plafmatus, Rbomphea; and I will give fome few Quotations, to fhew, by the Barbarity of the Latin, that it could not be written in the Firft or Second Century. Ch. 1. Populus indifciplinatus, dabo ducatum Abraham. Ch. 3. Verba timorata, malignum cor bajulam, Ch. 6. Videbit falutare meum. Ch. 7. Qui fpiramentum babent. 8. Plafmatio. 9. Oratio mea in Improperium. 11. Potentatum tenuit orbis. 13. Sidus violabitur ad faciendam exterritationem. By thefe Quotations we know, this Tranflator was no Roman of the Firft Century, nor Second; but is a Tranflation from a Greek Copy in later Ages.

[ocr errors]

The fame Latin is in the Tranflation of Irenew. 'Tis pro bable that Efdras was originally written in Chaldee, as Daniel, and Ezechiel, and Tobit; and the Ten Tribes were on the other fide Euphrates in Jofephus's Days; and for Fofeph. 1. 11. their Ufe Efdras wrote, to fhew them, that they would return into their Countrey in the later Ages; and 'tis probable, they may preferve fome of the 70 Copies; and by this Prophecy they knew the great Revolutions which would happen in Judea by the Romans, Saracens and Ottomans; and that the Ten Tribes could not return before the Meffiah had conquer'd thofe Enemies.

Another Learned Man objects, that Efdras is only in Latin, full of odd Vifions and Dreams, and feveral Errors; and it was never put into the Canon by any Council.

The Answer is plain: It was never put into the Canon, because the Original Copy in Hebrew or Chalder, was loft: and fince the Meaning of the Vifions was not then under

ftood,

[ocr errors]

food The Councils doubted of its Author, tho' all the Writers believ'd he was an infpir'd Perfon, who new digefted all the Holy Bible into the prefent Order, who interpolated many new Names of Places, who transcribed all into the Chaldee Character.

The true Reafon of this Contempt of Efdras, was, the Sa maritans curfed his Collection of all the Books befides the Pentateuch. The Jews were offended with Efdras's plain Prophecies concerning Chrift, part of which they rafed out, as is above quoted.

Efdras was commanded to conceal his Prophecies for fome time; and this might occafion the Jews to question them afterwards: and all Books kept in private were called Apocry phal. So the Apocalypfe was not in the Old Canon; neither was the Epiftle to the Hebrews; but if the Old Fathers could have interpreted Efdras, they would have admitted him into the Canon and 'cis the Want of an Interpretation which has occafioned the abfurd and fcandalous Reflections of the Moderns on this Book: But the Primitive Fathers understood his Millennium, the Prophecies of Chrift, the Jews Return, and the State of the Soul after Death, and that he reftored the Scriptures; and for these things they quoted his Book. And Mr. Thorndyke thinks the Apocrypha very useful for Inftruction, concerning the Refurrection and future Life. Vide Laws of the Church, ch. 26. and ch. 11. of the Covenant of Grace. The Mystery of Chriftianity intimated in the Old Teftament, begins to be more plainly difcover'd in these Books (of Apocrypha) than in the Canonical Scriptures.

I cannot think it an Abfurdity, that Efdras new-penn'd many Copies of the Pentateuch, in the room of those burnt, or defac'd, or not intelligible by reafon of their old Character: These things might happen amongst the Ten Tribes in Media, who had been there many Years before Efdras. Their Scriptures he corrected, and caufed to be transcribed but the Jews in Judea, Samaria, and Egypt, had other Co pies. He might add the Chronicles, and the Third of Efdras, and all the Prophets, and Píalms afterwards, when he came to Jerufalem.

;

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »