Remarks upon David Levi's Dissertations on the prophecies relative to the Messiah: and upon the evidences of the divine character of Jesus Christ: addressed to the consideration of the Jews

Front matter

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THE LIBRARY

Preface

THE following Remarks owe their origin to a letter which appeared in the Christian Observer for May last, under the signature ' PERSEVERANS,' wherein the writer exhorts those Christians who feel an interest in the spiritual welfare of the ancient people of God, to endeavour to contribute thereto by appeals addressed to them from the press. And he particularly calls the attention of those who have leisure and talents, to the necessity of answering 1 DAVID LEVI'S DISSERTATIONS ON f THE PROPHECIES RELATING TO THE ' MESSIAH.'

To these Dissertations the writer of the following pages was, till then, a stranger ; as he still is to the other works of the

VI PREFACE.

learned Jew. And what is now offered to the consideration of the Jews, is not under the name of a complete answer to every part of Levi's work, for which the author neither possesses sufficient erudition, nor can command enough of leisure; — but, believing, with a conviction founded upon serious investigation, that JESUS is the promised Messiah, he has endeavoured, according to the precept of the apostle, to ^ive a reason of the hope that is in him, against the chief objections of David Levi. — The following remarks have been written in the midst of various and pressing avocations and interruptions, and are, upon this account, even more imperfect than they might have been otherwise.

From an attentive study of the Prophecies of the Old and New Testaments, the author has long since attained to a conviction, that the awful events of the times in

PREFACE. Vil which we live, are rapidly paving the way for the restoration of Israel. . He believes that their conversion and restoration are very near at hand ; and that, with the blessing of God, no efforts made for directing their attention to JESUS, as the promised Messiah, shall be altogether fruitless.

It seems also probable, from the prophetical writings, that no great or general revival of religion will take place in the Christian Church, till the conversion of Israel ; for it is implied in the expression made use of by St. Paul in Rom. xi. 15, that when Israel is received into the Church of Christ, by the conversion of the whole nation, the Church shall be in a dead and lifeless state, but this event shall be the occasion of its emerging from a state of death to a state of life. Upon every account, therefore, the conversion

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of Israel is that great event, for which every Christian ought most devoutly to pray. The writer requests, therefore, the fervent prayers of those who are waiting for the consolation of Israel, that the following pages may not be without some fruit to the glory of the adorable Redeemer, who purchased his Church with his own most precious blood.*

November 19, 1809.

* The Society are requested by the author of these Remarks, (who resides 400 miles from London,) to state, that when they were written, he did not know that David Levi was no longer in life. This circumstance will account for the fact of some passages being obviously written under the contrary supposition.

CHAP. VIII. Page

MISCELLANEOUS AND CONCLUDING OBSER- VATIONS . 179 tO 190

ADVERTISEMENT.

JL HE small Work now offered to the Public, has been printed from the first rough manuscript of the Author, which want of leisure prevented him from transcribing fair. When he sent it to the Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews, he expected, that, if it were thought worthy of publication, he would have an opportunity of again seeing and retouching it, before it was printed. But circumstances have occurred to prevent this. The Author hopes that this simple statement will lead the Header to overlook any inaccuracies of style, or improprieties of expression, which may be discerned in it.

The Author is under the greatest obligations to the Gentleman zvho has taken the trouble to correct the press ; but, under circumstances so disadvantageous, it can scarcely be expected that there should not be a considerable list of errata; and it is probable that some have yet escaped the attention of the Author. The Author takes the liberty of requesting the Reader to correct the errata before he begins to peruse the work.

A LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

BY THE

LONDON SOCIETY,

SOLD BY

MESSRS. BLACK, PARRY, AND KINGSBURY,

LEADENHALL STREET.

OBLIGATIONS of CHRISTIANS to ATTEMPT the CONVERSION of the JEWS, by a PRESBYTER of the CHURCH of ENGLAND.

FIVE MINUTES' CONSIDERATION recommended to Mr. TOBIAS GOODMAN, by the SAME.

JESUS the TRUE MESSIAH, a Sermon, by the Rev. ANDREW FULLER.

PROOFS from the ANCIENT PROPHECIES that the MESSIAH must have come ; and that JESUS of NAZARETH is the MES- SIAH; seriously addressed to the Attention of the Jewish Ration. By a CLERGYMAN of the CHURCH of ENGLAND.

THE SAME, translated into the Hebrew Language.

REMARKS

UPON

DAVID LEFTS

EXssertattons; on fte prophecies.

Chap I

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. — THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCI- PLE OF DAVID LEVI'S DISSERTATIONS ASCERTAINED.

SHOWN TO BE FOUNDED ON A PETITIO PRINCIPII, OR TAKING FOR GRANTED THE QUESTION AT ISSUE.

JN o candid Jew will deny that the controversy between the Jews and Christians is of the utmost importance. It involves in it the questions- — Whether the Messiah, so long looked for by the Jewish nation, be not already come ? Whether Jesus was not this Messiah ? and, Whether the Jews, by continuing to deny Him, be not guilty every day of crucifying the Son of God afresh.

B inasmuch as they still confess and justify the deed of their fathers ?

I lately saw it mentioned in a periodical publication, that the Jewish writer, David Levi, had, in his controversy with Dr. Priestley, proposed, as the fairest method of deciding the momentous question, an examination of all the prophecies concerning the Messiah, from Moses to Malachi, and a comparison thereof with the acts recorded of Jesus in the New Testament, to see whether they have been fulfilled in his person or not. It was further stated, that no Christian writer has yet undertaken to answer Levi ; and that this is often mentioned by the Jews in such a way as to show that they attach much weight to the silence of their Christian opponents.

I felt my curiosity to be aroused by this circumstance, and I immediately procured a copy of Levi's work, as far as it seems to be yet published, viz. his three first volumes ; and have perused it with that attention which the importance of the subject demands, and which is more

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peculiarly necessary, from the challenge which the author offers to the whole Christian world. I cannot help auguring well from this challenge. It shows that a spirit of inquiry has arisen among the Jews ; and as candid and fair discussion is always favourable to the progress of Truth, they who believe the Christian revelation, will see newjreasqns from it to hope that the day is near at hand when the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and turn away iniquity from Jacob. How animating and encouraging is the hope, that the Day Spring from on high is at length about to re-visit that highly-honoured people, ' who are ' Israelites, to whom is the adoption, and the

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4 glory, <if the covenants, and the giving of the ' law, and the service of God, and the promises ; ' whose are the fathers ; and of whom, as con- ' cerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, ' God blessed for ever. Amen ! '

Whatever may be the feelings of infidels and men of the world towards the Jews, no true Christian can harbour towards them a cold or indifferent thought. He must regard them with

B 2 the tenderest and warmest affection, as his elder brethren in the church of God ; and though now apparently cast off because of their unbelief, yet reserved to be the channels of new communications of grace and glory to a lost world. He will therefore hail with rapture the approach of that day, when ' ten men shall take hold out of 1 all the languages of the nations, even shall take 4 hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, ' We will go with you, for we have heard that 4 God is with you/ (Zech. viii. 23.) Such, O highly-honoured and beloved children of Abraham, are the sentiments and feelings of the person who now takes the liberty of requesting your candid and patient attention to the following pages, in which he proposes to offer some concise remarks upon the reasoning of David Levi from prophecy, and to lay before you some of the evidences of the divine character and mission of Jesus.

It is of a controversial work, as of a building ; if the foundation be weak or unsound, the superstructure must fall. Should it therefore be made

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out, that the fundamental principle of David Levi's reasoning' against Christianity from the Old Testament prophecies is unsupported by the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as contrary to the whole analogy of the divine government, or that it is a taking for granted the very question at issue between Jews and Christians, then the whole superstructure which he has raised on it must fall to the ground, and the Jews must have recourse to other arguments, to justify their continued rejection of Jesus, as : the promised Messiah.

Upon an attentive perusal of David Levi's work, it will be found that nearly his whole reasoning from prophecy against the divine mission of Jesus, resolves itself into the following argument. " That since the glorious events " which are predicted by the Old Testament " prophets, as to take place in the times of the " Messiah, were neither accomplished by Jesus " during his abode upon earth, nor have been " brought to pass during the eighteen centuries " which have elapsed since his coming, there-

" fore Jesus could not be the promised Messiah." Now this argument itself rests upon the following principle, That the glory of the Messiah's kingdom upon earth was to take place immediately, or very speedily after his first appearance in this icorld.

I propose, in refutation of this principle, to show — That it is a taking for granted the very question at issue between the Jews and Christians— That it is contrary to the whole analogy of the Divine government of the world — That it is contrary to the express intimations of the Hebrew Scriptures, with respect to the nature and progress of Messiah's kingdom — That it is expressly opposed to those prophecies which foretel a suffering Messiah. And I shall next call the attention of the Jews to some other arguments in support of the divine mission of Jesus.

As there were Sadducees among the Jews, who denied the resurrection of the dead, and the existence of angels and spirits, thus limiting the hopes and fears of man, and the promises

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of God, to the present state of existence, so there have been, and still are, in the Christian church, many persons who run to a contrary extreme ; who deny the obvious meaning of all the prophecies which relate to the restoration of the Jews to their own land, and the glory and happiness which there await them. This mode of spiritualizing the prophecies respecting the Jews, seems now, however, to be rapidly losing ground ; and nearly all the later interpreters receive these promises in their plain and literal meaning. Between these Christian interpreters and David Levi, there is therefore no difference of opinion with respect to the certainty of the accomplishment of the prophecies of the future restoration of Israel; the difference between them respects the person by whom they are to be accomplished. — The Jew, denying the divine mission of Jesus, asserts that the Messiah is not yet come ; and that, at his first coming, he is to restore the whole house of Israel. The Christian asserts that Jesus is the Messiah promised to the fathers ; and that, at his second advent, He will restore and convert the Jewish nation.

Which of these opinions accords best with the Hebrew Scriptures, must be proved by a fair and full examination of the Scriptures themselves; and it is obvious that neither of the parties is entitled to assume that their own opinion is the right one.

This seems to be the precise error into which Levi has run. He has collected many prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures, which relate to the excellent and glorious effects of the Messiah's kingdom upon earth, and which are equally received and believed by the Christian and the Jew. In interpreting these prophecies, he first takes it for granted, without proof, that they are all to be fulfilled immediately after the first coming of the Messiah ; and as they were not thus fulfilled by Jesus, he thence argues that Jesus was not the Messiah. To this the Christian may answer, by demanding Levi to produce one clear and unequivocal prophecy from the Old Testament, which declares that

LEVI S DISSERTATIONS.

the establishment of the glorious kingdom of the Messiah on earth, is to happen immediately after his first advent. If the Jew cannot produce such proof from the Scriptures, then his whole argument from prophecy falls to the ground, as being founded on a petitio pr'uicipii ; and it remains, for aught that has been advanced by David Levi, that Jesus may be the Messiah, in and by whom all things that are written in the prophets shall still receive their accomplishment.

Chap. II

DAVID LEVI S FIRST PRINCIPLE CONTRARY TO THE ANALOGY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT.

JJY the Analogy of the Divine Government, we mean that unity and similarity of plan which m observable in all the different works of God ; whether in the animal or vegetable kingdoms, or in his moral creation. This analogy discovers itself to the attentive observer in every part of the works of God : — in the generation of animals and vegetables ; in their progress from infancy to maturity; and in their final dissolution. it is no less discoverable in his government of the rational and moral world.

It is a conspicuous part of this analogy, that no animal or vegetable is brought to the perfec-

LEV1S DISSERTATIONS. 11

tion of its nature at once. Every thing arises from small beginnings : the vegetable productions from seed deposited in the earth ; and animals from the semen infused into the uterus. — The progress, both of animals and vegetables, from infancy to maturity, is gradual and slow; and it seems to be a general rule, that the nobler and more durable any production is, the longer is the period of its reaching perfection. Thus, among animals, the elephant, whose faculties approach most nearly to those of man, is slowest of growth, as is, in the vegetable kingdom, the oak, the monarch of the forest.

We discover the same analogy in the original creation of the world. — God might, by that Almighty power which first produced the matter of the world, have commanded into existence the globe which we inhabit, and the planetary system to which it belongs, in all that beauty and perfection with which he gradually cloftthed them during the six days of creation. But we learn from the first chapter of Genesis, that He, in his infinite wisdom, saw fit to adopt a different plan ; one which precisely corresponds with the analogy of his procedure in the providential government and preservation of the natural world.

With respect to the creation of man, who was destined to replenish the earth, and to subdue it, and to be in this terrestrial world the image of the invisible God, it might be said by a profane caviller, Why all this loss of time ? Why was only one pair of the human species created, instead of such a number as might have been sufficient, if not fully to people the earth, yet, at least, accelerate the time, when, in the course of nature, it would be replenished with intellectual beings ? To such a caviller, the pious Israelite might answer, in the sublime language of inspiration, ' Who hath directed the Spirit of ' the Lord, or, being His counsellor, hath taught c Him ? With whom took He counsel, and who ; instructed Him in the path of judgment, and ' taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the ' way of understanding ?' He might justly add, that the procedure of God in creating only one pair of the human species, was analogous to all His other plans of creation and providence ; and, consequently, must bear the stamp of the same infinite wisdom, whether we can discern the reasons of it, or not.

But, does this analogy with respect to the gradual progress and developement of the works of God, extend also to the economy of the Messiah's kingdom ? Is the progress of His kingdom, like that of the other plans of the Deity, to be gradual ; small in its beginnings, and slowly extending itself by the operation of means appointed for the purpose ? Or, was the original coming of the Messiah to be attended with such signal and irresistible displays of divine power, as should at once overcome all opposition, and subject the world to his laws ?

He who believes in Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah, must also believe that the progress of his kingdom was intended to be slow and gradual, like that of the other works of God, at least till that period, called, by Christians, the Second Advent, when they are taught to believe, that the power of God will be exerted, with irresistible energy, in the establishment of Christ's kingdom, and in breaking in pieces the opposing nations. The Christian, in support of this opinion, may quote the words of Jesus himself — ' The kingdom of Heaven is 4 like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man ' took, and sowed in his field, which, indeed, 4 is the least of all seeds ; but, when it is grown, 4 it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh ' a tree, so that the birds of the air come and ' lodge in the branches thereof.' (Matt. xiii. 31, 32.) — ' So is the kingdom of God, as if a man ' should cast seed into the ground, and should ' sleep and rise, night and day, and the seed ' should spring and grow up, he knoweth not ' how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of ' herself, first the blade, then the ear, after that, ' the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit 4 is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the ' sickle, because the harvest is ripe.' (Mark iv. 26 — 29.) What is taught in these parables seems tosimply this : that in the kingdom and economy of the Messiah, God does not depart from, but strictly adheres to, the analogy which is observable in all His other works, even in those of the vegetable kingdom ; and, consequently, that the sudden and immediate establishment of the kingdom of the Messiah, in its glorious state, was not to be expected.

Such was the doctrine of Jesus ; and such, consequently, must be the opinion of his followers. After what has been already mentioned, it seems scarcely necessary to say, that the scheme of the modern Jewish doctors, and particularly of David Levi, is quite different. Without entering upon the discussion of the evidences of the divine mission of Jesus, which Christians commonly adduce, and which Jesus himself, in his conversations with the Jews, insisted upon, as being unanswerable proofs that He was the Messiah, Levi, in every part of his work on the prophecies, brings it forward, in limine, as an unanswerable objection to the pretensions of Jesus, that he did not while he lived upon earth, and has not yet produced, the great changes which prophecy leads us to expect in the times of the Messiah. Were I to mention every instance in which Levi argues in this way, I should be obliged to transcribe a great part of his book, I shall therefore content myself with quoting one or two passages to that effect. — In arguing from the first prophecy of Isaiah, (Isaiah ii.) he states, (Vol.1, page 72,) " Neither did Jesus at " his coming judge and plead with the nations " concerning their different and jarring faiths, " so as to terminate their disputes, and entirely " annihilate all contention about them ; and thus " introduce universal peace into the world/'

In arguing from Isaiah xi. Levi writes, (Vol. I. page 76',) " Neither will any one be so hardy as " to say that it was fulfilled in the person of " Jesus; for he did not restore the nation, nor " did he fill the throne of David, although it is " plain that the Jews expected a temporal " prince, (see Matt. ii. 2 — >6,) and the angel " Gabriel is represented as promising Mary, that *•' the Lord God would give him the throne of " his father David, and that he should reign

LEVI S DISSERTATIONS.

" over the house of Jacob for ever (Luke i. " 32, 3:3) ; from all which, his disciples were so " fully convinced that it was one of the offices " of the Messiah to restore the kingdom to " Israel, that they came to the resolution of " actually asking him before his ascension, whe- " ther he purposed at that time to restore the " kingdom to Israel. (Acts i. 6.) The answer " given to them plainly shows that he wished " to evade giving a direct answer to such a tick- " lish question. He, however, left the nation " groaning under the yoke of the Romans, who, " not long after, put an end to their kingdom " and government."

For other passages to the same effect, see the Dissertation itself, throughout the whole of which the same argument is brought forward against the divine mission of Jesus Christ.

It is not my present purpose to enter into a particular refutation of the above remarks of Levi ; my intention in quoting them being only to illustrate what I have said upon the argument from analogy. And I presume that it will ap-

c pear from them quite evident to the attentive reader, that the expectations formed by David Levi, with regard to the rapid and sudden establishment of the kingdom of the Messiah, immediately after his appearance in this world, are not agreeable to the analogy of the divine procedure in the creation and government of the natural world.

I shall proceed next to inquire, Whether the scheme of Levi be consistent with the analogy of the procedure of God, in the government and economy of the Old Testament Church ? and as all my illustrations will be derived from the Hebrew Scriptures, I hope that no Jew will object to the conclusiveness of any arguments which may be fairly deduced from that source. It is proper, however, to premise, that, in arguing from analogy with regard to the probable course of the divine procedure in the economy of the Messiah, we should not for a moment lose sight of one most important fact, which is, that the kingdom of the Messiah is in the Old Testament always represented as eternal in its duration. To prove this point, which is, indeed, acknowledged by the Jews, it is not necessary to multiply quotations. I shall rest the fact on one passage ; (Daniel vii. 14.) — Now it is quite evident that one or two thousand years bear no sort of proportion to eternity : so that, with God, ' a thousand years are said to be as yesterday, ' when it is past, and as a watch of the night. ' (Psalm xc. 4).

It undeniably follows, therefore, that the eighteen centuries which have elapsed since the advent of Jesus, and during which, upon the hypothesis of his being the Messiah, God has delayed the establishment of his kingdom ; bear not so great a proportion to the duration of his kingdom, as a grain of sand does to the matter of the globe.

I shall now endeavour to shew that it has been the manner of the divine procedure towards all his chosen servants, whose histories are recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, when promises were made to them either of a temporal, or a spiritual nature, to try their faith and patience by long and discouraging delays in the performance of the promises ; and I shall from this deduce a proposition, that even a priori, it was to be presumed that something of this kind would take place in the economy of the Messiah.

The first instance which I shall produce, is that of the patriarch Abraham. We find it recorded in Genesis xii., ' Now the Lord had said ' unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and 4 from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, 4 unto a land that I will show thee. And I will 4 make of thee a great nation, and I will bless ' thee, and make thy name great ; and thou ' shalt be a blessing/ — ' And in thee shall all ' families of the earth be blessed. So Abram ' departed, as the Lord had spoken to him, and 1 Lot went with him : and Abram was seventy 1 and five years old when he departed out of ' Haran.3

Here we have the original promise given to Abraham, upon the faith of which he left his own country and family, and became a pilgrim in a strange country, in which he never possessed a foot of land, excepting the field of Alachpelah, which he purchased of Ephron the Hittite for a burying place. But was this promise speedily fulfilled ? It is evident that it was not. We find it indeed renewed after Abraham's arrival in the promised land. (Gen. xii. 7.) ' And the Lord appeared unto Abraham, and ' said, Unto thy seed will I give this land.' — Again, it was renewed in a more ample and detailed manner, after the separation of Abraham and Lot. (Gen. xiii. 14 — 17.) The next renewal of the promise is recorded in Gen. xv ; and we there discover, that, from the long delay in the fulfilment of it, the faith even of this holy man had begun to stagger. ' And Abra- 4 ham said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, 4 seeing I go childless ?' — ' Behold, to me thou 4 hast given no seed : and lo, one born in my ' house is mine heir. And behold, the word of 4 the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not ' be thine heir ; but he that shall come forth ' out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir, 4 And he brought him forth abroad, and said.

' Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars; if ' thou be able to number them : and he said 'unto him, so shall thy seed be — And he be- ' lieved in the Lord, and he counted it to him ' for righteousness. '

Still, however, the performance of the promise is deferred; and at length, Sarah, wearied out with the long delay of ten years, which had elapsed from the giving of the promise, without any apparent probability of its being fulfilled through herself, proposed to Abraham to marry her maid Hagar. The patriarch acquiesced in this suggestion, and the consequence was the birth of Ishmael, when Abraham was eightysix years of age, and exactly eleven years after his call to come out of t-r of the Chaldees.

From this time, until he was ninety-nine years of age, Abraham probably looked upon Ishmael as being the promised son. But the Lord then appeared to him again, (Gen. xvii.) and informed him that he was to have a son by Sarah, who should be the ancestor of the pro. mised seed, i. e. the Messiah ; and to signify the joyful nature of the salvation to be accomplished by him, the son to be born of the womb of Sarah, now past the age of bearing, was to be called Isaac, or laughter. In the following year Isaac was born.

Thus it appears from the history of Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation and of the Messiah, that God was pleased to try his faith and patience, during the long term of twenty-five years, between the giving of the promise of a son, and the fulfilment of it by the birth of Isaac. During this period, indeed, to strengthen the faith of the pious patriarch, the promise was often renewed with increasing degrees of clearness and particularity; yet it is apparent from his history, that, in general, he enjoyed no such extraordinary communications of divine light, as to raise him above the common frailties of our nature. He was an illustrious character, who walked by faith, and not by sight, and looked forward to that heavenly country, of which Canaan was a type; but he was not a faultless, or perfect character. His conduct, when he first went into Egypt, in making Sarah pass herself for his sister, was exceedingly culpable; and could arise from no source but a distrust of the promise. (Gen. xii. 11.) We find him guilty of the same sin a second time, when he sojourned in Gerar ; and he thereby subjected himself to this sharp rebuke from Abimelech, a heathen, ' Thou hast done things c that ought not to be done.' (Gen. xx. 1 — 9.)