MASTER NEGA TIVE NO. 92-80491 \ MICROFILMED 1992 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK as part of the "Foundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project" Funded by the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Library COPYRIGHT STATEMENT The copyright law of the United States - Title 17, United States Code ~ concerns the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material... Columbia University Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of the copyright law. AUTHOR: DIOGO DA ANNUNCIACAO TITLE: THE INQUISITION AND JUDAISM. A SERMON. PLACE: PHILADELPHIA DA TE : [1 859] COLUMBIA UNIVEI^ITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT BIBLIOGRAPHIC MICROFORM TARGET Master Negative # ^-jiMV.-l. Original Material as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record 933.1 D6233 Diogo da Annunoia^ao, abp. of Cranganor, d. 1713. The inquisition and Judaism. A sormon ad- dressed to Jov;ish rxirtyrs, on *the occasion of an auto da fe at Lisbon, 1705. By the Arch- bishop of Crang^anor; also a reply to the ser- mon, by Carlos Vero. Tr. by Moses Mocatta. Philadelphia, Barnard, 5620 (1859j XV, 221 p. Restrictions on Use: 4857J:; FILM SIZE: TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA REDUCTION RATIO: If ^ IMAGE PLAC^IMENT: lA .C, RLMEDBY: RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS, INC VVOODDRIDGE. CT c Association for information and Image IManagement 1100 Wayne Avenue. Suite 1100 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 r* 11 : Centimeter 12 3 4 5 TTT Inches 1 TTT liml UUiil 11 7 8 imliiiilinilii T 1.0 I.I 1.25 9 10 11 12 13 iiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiii I |50 lU 2.8 m 1 3.6 1^ 1.4 TTT 2.5 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.6 Mill 5 14 m 15 mm Llll MfiNUFflCTURED TO flllM STflNDRRDS BY APPLIED IMAGE, INC. Coluntbm ^^nitJf rsftp tntI)fCitpofSmg0rk THE LIBRARIES Presented by Mrs. Emma Gottlifil in memory of her husband RICHARD JAMES HORATIO GOTTHEIL 1S62— 1936 A.B.. 1881. Columbia, Ph.D.. 188fi. Leipzig, Litt.D.. 1929. D.H.L.. 1933 Professor of Semitic LinRuages and Rabbinical IJterature. Columbia, 1887-1936 tL.,Uft^,l^ij^'^ h^k^././/-/ TUB INQUISITION AND JUDAISM. A SERMON ADDRESSED TO JEWISH MARTYES, ON THE OCCASION OF AN AUTO DA FE AT LISBON, 17 DT THE ARCHBISHOr OF CRANGAXOl!: ALSO A REPLY TO THE SERMON, BT CAKLOS VEllO. TRA!«SL\TED BT MOSES MOCATTA rHILAr.ELPIIlA: BARNARD k TONSS, IRINTERS, RIDGWAY BUILDINGS, No. jlO Minor Str?it. 6020. n 2 .• • • . • . : • •• . . NOTE. AVk think that we render a service to the cause of Ju- Jtiisni by reprinting this controversial work which we re- ceived some years ago from the late Moses Mocatta, and which he had translated from the rortugucse. Mr. M. printed all his works for private distribution, and this one has, therefore, like the others, never been accessible to the public. We would observe, that Mr. M. belonged to the Brit- ish Jews' congregation who do not regard rabbinical au- thority as binding. Hence his allusion in the Preface which is not very complimentary to our old teachers. Should the sale of this tract be such as to demonstrate that such books will be acceptable to a large class of read- ers, we may then be induced to issue some others which ought to become more generally diflused. I. L. Philadelphia, August, 5620. 1 ■ I > • • • ■ * • INTRODUCTION. In tho following pages will bo found a ser- mon delivered by the Archbishop of Cranganor to a number of Israelites, hapless victims of tho Inquisition, preparatory to the unhallowed cele- bration of an auto da fe. Of the unfortunate beings compelled to listen to tho archbishop, a majority were under sentence of making their selection between apostacy and death, and one amongst tho number, having offended a second time against tho Inquisition, is, agreeably to all inference, irrevocably condemned to perish by the flames. And ^-et it is before such defenceless creatures, whoso tongues are bridled, that tho prelate effects a vast display of erudition; it is such unhappy men whom he assails with a ver- bose and diffuse harangue, professing to enter into a free and fair discussion on tho merits of tho respective creeds of Judaism and Christian- ity! Such a flagrant outrage on tho unalienable rights of conscience— such a solemn farce, en- acted in tho name and under the assumed sane- tion of tho God of mercy and love— cannot fail to awaken in every humane and thinking mind sentiments of abhorrence and disgust. Painful as tho records of such acts must be, still wo may A* VI INTBODUCTION. derive a soothing consolation from the fact that the Satanic tribunal of Torquemado, every page of whose history is inscribed in blood, has long ceased to be tolerated by every civilized nation throughout the globe. Though the times in which our lives are cast boar the impress of a more humane and enlightened spirit, and render impracticable the barbarous deeds of the mcdia)- val ages ; we have nevertheless to deplore that the privileges of conscience are not yet respect- ed, and that the morbid craving for apostatizing still continues to mar domestic and social peace, and to keep alive the flame of civil and sectarian strife which ought long since to have been ex- tinguished. In many parts of the Old and New World, but more especially in Great Britain, the conversion of the Jews has become an organized system. — Here, societies and branch societies are formed, schools are established for infants and adults, and enormous sums are annually placed at the dis- posal of mercenary agents to further what the maudlin fanaticism of the day calls "the good cause." It might bo imagined that with all this formidable apparatus, added to the efforts of a regiment of missionaries in no way scrupulous as to the means they employ to accomplish their unrighteous object, that every year would bring an overwhelming number of Jews to the baptis- mal font. Nothing, however, can be more con- INTRODUCTION. vu trary to the fact; for if we are to give credence to the printed reports of the conversionists (and most anxious must they be to make some show in return for the treasure poured into their cof- fers), eighteen, or, at most, nineteen is the yearly average of Jewish souls that can be brought up for the society in the several districts of their missionary stations. On inquiring into the true motives that can possibly induce Israelites to renounce the faith of their fathers, we cannot divest ourselves of the suspicion that a craving for mundane honors, and an unruly ambition upon which religious sen- timent holds no check, may have great weight with some men, and may lead them to prefer the momentary gratification which the parade and circumstance of power confers, to the favor of the Supreme Being and the approbation of conscience. To attempt to argue with such un- principled men, if such there be, would be utter- ly hopeless; for little can the words of mortals avail who are deaf to the voice of God and reck- less of their eternal bliss. Others, again, there are, whose abject poverty renders them obnoxious to the pecuniary bait held out by the wily agents of the "Society."-— We are hardly prepared to suggest a remedy in this case, indisposed as we are to attempt to bind men to their creed by mere worldly consid- erations : yet would we venture to urge on the via INTllODUCTION, consideration of the more opulent members of our community the absolute necessity of taking a deep and lively interest in the condition of their poorer brethren, of ascertaining their men- tal and physical wants, and of endeavoring to protect them, as far as may be practicable, from the demoralizing influence of those who traffic in conscience. There is, however, another class of Israelites, neither few nor unimportant, who are deserving of the highest consideration. AVe allude to the youths of both sexes, who, for want of that sound religious instruction which the pulpit of every Synagogue ought to provide, but which at the present day is almost entirely neglected, are left to their own resources, and are thus render- ed an easy prey to whoever may be disposed to steal away their hearts. Every one conversant -with the religious training of Jewish females must be impressed with the lamentable fact that the instruction imparted to this important class of the community is fatally deficient. To them the Scriptures in the orignal Hebrew are as a sealed book : their sole dependance is on the au- thorized Anglican version, which every Hebraist must be aware, is an extremely partial transla- tion, often at war with the obvious grammatical sense of the verse and of the context, and avow- edly, or at least designedly, undertaken to give a coloring to a system unknown to Moses and to INTRODUCTION. IX ii the succeeding prophets, and therefore subver- sive of the teachings of the genuine Hebrew Scriptures. These unfair and perverted transla- tions, added to the objectionable and totally un- warranted headings of the chapters, often per- plex readers of tender years, and fill their minds with misgivings and doubts. Confiding in what they suppose to be a faithful, accurate, and con- scientious rendering of the Old Testament, and receiving little or no aid from their own clergy as to the proper exposition of the Scriptures, they either regard the Bible as involving mani- fest contradictions, and so degenerate into infi- delity, or they fall into the snares spread for their feet by the mercenary agents of the con- verting societies. It is for this class, and prin- cipally for the female portion of this class, the future wives and mothers in Israel, who must naturally form the religious principles of the coming generation, that the translator of the sermon of the archbishop and of its refutation, has imposed on himself the present task. Whoever has noted the history of the contro- versy between the "Converters" and the disci- ples of the faith of Moses, must be aware that the weapons employed have been invariably .taken from the same armory. The reader will not, therefore, be surprised at the want of novel- ty in the "proofs" and "arguments" advanced by the "converters," from the prelate of Cran- l X INTRODUCTION. ganor downwards; bnt he will be rejoiced to find that the able reply of the Israelites (whom either a high sense of modesty or more probably, a fear of persecution, has induced to conceal his name), strikes at the root of all the positions taken up by the champion of Papacy, and proves each of his arguments to be inconsequent and unscrip- tural. Every book of the Bible, and every vol- ume recording the opinions of individual Rab- bins, has been ransacked by the coercing baptis- ers during a succession of centuries, and yet they have found no sharper weapons wherewith to combat the pure principles of Mosaism than those employed by the Archbishop of Cranganor. The reply, therefore, to the prelate of Lisbon, is a reply to the whole of his fraternity who have since embarked in the same unjustifiable warfare. Let, then, the discerning reader make himself familiar with the sentiments and doctrines of both disputants : let him study the sermon and the reply: let him "look on this picture and on that;" then let him compare the Jesuitical so- phistry of the former with the unimpassioned logic of the latter; and it may reasonably be an- ticipated that ho will cling with increased fond- Bess and confidence to the faith of his fathers, and that he will live and die a disciple of Moscs,^ not only from the circumstance of birth, habit, and early associations, but from absolute convic- tion induced by the native force of truth. INTRODUCTION. XI The old and somewhat curious work now put forth, having made its way, by mere chance, to the translator, he at once deemed it a religious duty to give it an English attire, and to secure for it a ready reception amongst the youthful portion of his Jewish brethren, by presenting it to them gratis. It is to be regretted that some steps in the same direction have not long since been taken by those whoso bounden duty it is to train youth in religious knowledge. For bet- ter would it have been for the moral and spirit- ual welfare of Israel, if the Rabbins of other times had manifested less concern for every tit- tle of outward ceremonies, and had displayed more earnestness for the development of the ex- alted principles which constitute the basis and the glory of the Jewish faith. Had they but imitated the example of the pjiino* in the days of Ezra, had they stood forth like him to ex- pound the law in the vernacular tongue, instead of spending their lives in subtle speculations, and in fine hair drawn disquisitions which exer- cise no moral or religious influence over the miuds of youth, how many would, even at the present day, be worshipping the God of Israel as an absolute Vniiy, instead of bowing at the shrine of apostacy. The translator has frankly avowed his object 4 *The Chaldee for interpreter. zu INTRODUCTION. in introducing the following work to the notice of the youth of Israel— that it is intended to for- tify them in the principles of their ancient faith, and to protect them against the insidious efforts of the missionaries. To this faithful declaration he begs to add, that nothing is more remote from his mind and more alien to his wishes than to interfere with the religious belief of his Chris- tian brethren and compatriots. A genuine Is- raelite is, both from doctrine and feeling, an un- compromising friend to freedom of conscience. — Whilst he is naturally attached to his own faith, it is with him a practical doctrine that all men of all creeds, whose lives are morally good, are equally the objects of the Almighty's love and care, and that they will all participate in the blessings of life everlasting. Far then from con- demning the creeds of other men, the Israelite respects all religious systems, however they may differ from his own, and regards them as the se- veral means by which men are rendered useful, happy, and morally good; and by which they are brought nearer and nearer to that Great Be- ing, "the Rock, whose work is perfection."* Kever, therefore, will the Israelites be found attacking the faith of another; but if he is com- pelled to enter the lists of controversy, it is on the side of the defence that his banner will be *Deut. xxxii. 4. INTRODUCTION. « « » Xlll unfurled, and there he will be seen verifying the impressive scriptural axiom.— 3)£3 n:3 in^'D ^21 "a word in season, how good is it!" In an admirable ittle work just issued from the press, we notice the following acute and judicious remark:* "So long as the Christian confines his arguments and quotations to the Kew Testament, the Israelite feels perfectly secure, from his entire rejection of such authority as divine : but when the words of the Old Testament are so explained as to bear most startlingly upon the creedof our adversaries, then It is that we need a careful but perfectly simple training to supply us with reply and de- fence." It is to be hoped that the work now placed in the hands of Jewish youths, will supply the desideratum to which the authoress refers. The writer of the refutation has merely con- fined himself to the compass of the Archbishop of Cranganor's arguments; and the scriptural quota- tions which he has adduced in support are con- sequently narrowed to that prescribed limit. Let It not, therefore, be imagined that all the proofs w4uch the Bible can furnish in defence of Judaism are exhausted in this reply; far from it, since there is scarcely a chapter of the book of Deuter- onomy, nor a book of the prophets, which the writer might not have quoted in support of his defence, had it been necessary to his purpose. * Women of Israel, by Grace Aguilar. iff B XIV INTRODUCTION. The reader may, however, repose unlimited confidence in all the expositions and elucidations which the writer of the "Keply" has put forth. The transhitor, who, during more than half a cen- tury of a prolonged life devoted to the study of the genuine Hebrew Scriptures, and to every con- troversial work of note from the pen of Jews and Christians, has carefully examined and verified all the quotations employed by the writer of the 'a«t of ix^ssessiiig knowledge? The contemplation of what you once were and what you now are, should sen^e to convert you from what you ai>e to what you ought to be; and if it should plea.se the God of Isi-ael, our God as well as yours, to cause you to roi>ent this day with all 3'our heart, it is in your ix)wer, by mak- ing abjuration, to give authentic evidence of the fiinccrity of your convei^ion. Without giving you offence— for my wish is solely to convince you— I shall endeavor to show you your error, and so undeceive you with regaivd to your tenets,' so that, if you are reasonable beings, you cannot fail to become Catholics. Unhappy men ! who, Ignorant of the very creed you pivofess, mistake ridiculous fomis for aets of religion, how I could wish that all your teachers, who are scattered over the world, could be here this day to be my # I 8 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, hearers; for so demonstratively shall I destroy the foundation of your hopes, that you would be compelled, by their judgment as well as your own, to become of the number of the faithful, however obstinately you and they might wish to persist in remaining Jews. True it is, that without a pious disposition of the will, it is hard to convince the understanding: still, so forcible are the arguments that I shall this day submit to your attention, that they cannot fail to elicit from your judgnunt a conclusion adverse to the falsehood of yours, and in favor of the truth of our faith. Y. In order that the demonstrations I may give may prove of sufHcient efficacy to convince you of your error, I shall not advance any theologi- cal arguments; for these depend on principles which either are unknown to you through igno- rance, or will be rejected by your stubborn apos- tacy. I will not avail myself of the 2s ew Testa- ment; for your creed will not admit the suppo- sition, that through baptism you are constrained to believe in its truth; neither will 1 attempt to persuade you by the evidence of our fathers, as I suppose their authority will be held in suspi- cion by your incredulous minds; nor Ity the ren- dering of the Old Testament according to our vulgate, as you do not admit that to be canoni- cal; but by your own Hebrew or Chaldaic ver- ARCnBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 9 sion, which you hold as sacred authority, not admitting of doubt or controversy. This then will be the text from which I shall draw all my arguments. The expositions of your Eabbins, on whose doctrines you ground your faith as Jews, wdl be added in corroboration. Only lis- ten dispassionately to me, and you will find that prejudice must yield to the force of evidence. VI. The prophet Isaiah, in chapter xlii. of his pro- phecies, saw in a vision the wretched state into which the Jews, on account of their sins, would Ml after the advent of Christ, who was and is the true Messiah which God promised to the world in his Scriptures, and left them a warn- ing against their delusion in these words- "/me autem populus direptus et vastatus; laqueus juve- mm omnes, et in domibus carcerum ahsconditi sunt • facti sunt in rapinam, nee est qui eruat; in direp- tionem, nee est qui dicat: Redded Know, ye unhappy people (says the prophet), know that after the coming of the Messiah, you will be a dispetsed nation throughout the world and bondsmen in every land; for you are to be a ruided and scattered people: ^^Ipse autem popu- lus direptus et vastatus.'* The small remnants of your former greatness which are left as an authentic testimony of the chastisement of your sins, shall form a net that c I 10 SER5I0K or JUSTIMA^ay ARCHBISHOP OP CRANGANOR. 11 tvill, with a sudden motion, draw you into a fear- ful prison, so that each shall be talvcn into a se- parate dungeon and immured in his cell with such secrecy that no one shall know who went in yesterday, and the one who is taken there to- day shall not know who it is that goes in to- morrow : "7/1 domihus carcerum ahsconditi sunt'' You will be reduced to such misery, O unfor- tunate people! that your nation of young and old will be quarrelling with one another; and you will form a net for your mutual distress and entanglement: ^^Laqiieus juvenum universitas ipso- rum vel omnes ipsi," says your Hebrew text. Thus conformably to the prophecy, you con- found and entangle yourselves, O wretched sons of Israel, whom a severe imprisonment awaits, which you have no means of averting; for Juda- ism being the crime with which you are charged, your involvement is such that no aid can avail to affect your liberation : ''Facti sunt in rapinamj nee est qui eruat; in direptionevij nee est qui dicat: BeddeJ' YII. That this passage in Isaiah contemplated the punishment that the Jews are now suffering, your own experience must be sufficient to con- vince you ; for you yourselves are in the very condition into which the prophet says you would fall after the advent of the Messiah. You your- selves see how you are dispersed all over the world, and scattered throughout every land; and either from necessity or inclination hold your- selves apart from one another, so that even if you meet privately to perform the rights of Ju- daism, you avoid each other in public, in order to deceive those who charge you with being Jews. You yourselves bewail your misfortunes, and complain to us Catholics that your enemies ensnare you, and draw you so suddenly and in- discriminately into the meshes of our holy office, that all of your lineage are exix)sed to the same calamity; and although you mutually proclaim your afflictions to one another, thero is no one who has the power to rescue you therefrom. All these facts, founded upon your own experience, fully prove that the prophet alludes to you in his text. If it be possible to suppose that this argument is not sufficient to establish the point, the evidence of your own Rabbi Samuel will sei-ve to do so ; for a thousand years ago, this Eabbi, in his celebrated epistle, acknowledges that Ilabbi Isaac, seven hundred and five years previously, had written that this captivity had befallen you for the sin you committed in put- ting Christ to death : "Aperte dicit Bens quod erit desolatlo post occisionem Christi; sicut est nostra desolatloypostquam Jesus fuit occisusJ* VIIL My brethren, do you see all these tokens al- ready fulfilled, of what was to happen to you af-' 12 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, ter the Messiah had come, according to the word of your prophet ? Either you do or you do not. If you do not, you are blind; for the very thing is at this moment happening to every individual among you. If you do, \vliy do you not disabuse yourselves, and admit that your hope is a mani- fest error, and that the Messiah you expect can never come, since these tokens prove that he has already been? Subsequently to the Messiah's coming, you were to be a dispersed and ruined people: '^Populus dlrcptus et vastatus.'' You were all to be ensnared conjointly or separately: ^^Laqueus universitas ipsorumj vel omnes ipsV^-^ You were not to be imprisoned together in gaol, but each of you was to have a separate cell to himself: "//i domibus career urn abseonditi sunt J' — So strong was to be the prison, and so rigid the confinement, that no arm would be able to res- cue you therefrom : ^'Facti sunt in rapinam, nee est quieniat; in dircptionem, nee est qui dicat : Jiedde.*' Now, at this day, if you experience all these things, and your ancestors have experienced the same for so many years past, how can you ex- pect a future advent, if it was after the advent all these things were to occur? What madness in you to look to the future for what is already past I After witnessing the consequences that were to follow the advent of the Messiah, you Btill continue to look forward to that event. The captivity continues, the imprisonment does not ARCHBISHOP or CRANGANOR. 13 cease, the net goes on strengthening, the disper- sion extending, the destruction is prolonged, and the Messiah does not appear. After the Messiah had come, you were to undergo all this : the event proves that the coming has already taken place; and yet you, with this event in view, still expect him to come. Verily, this is a part of the severe punishment that God has inflicted on you for the horrid sacrilege of murdering his son — lou hope for the Messiah in opposition to the very reasons of that for which you hope; and thus, although no longer in a position to expect hmi, 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 chrono- logy, 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. c * t 14 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 15 Cruel Messiah, who has so long delayed and "will 00 long delay to appear! O enduring people, that can still so persuveringly wait for the Mes- siah I 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 be- side the person of Jesus Christ no other Messiah is possible, your redemption will not take place, your captivity will continue, and your chastise- ment bo prolonged. IX. "iS'ec est qui eniat; nee est qui dicat: Jleddc^ — Kow 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 Mes- siah), why does the prophet say that they are Bot to have redemption? For the precise reason that the Jews expect their redemption from a future Messiah, they must remain without re- lief; 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 there- from. 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, whtch cannot be again fulfilled in any other. It is impossible, from the time in which he is to appear; for the time was already past 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 predic- tions prove, that in the Messiah they have been ah-eady 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 ob- ject of their desire but a dream, told them, that the more they hoped, the longer it would be be- fore they obtained the object of their hope, and the accomplishment of their wishes: ^^Nec est qui eruat; nee est qui dicat: ReddeJ' I 16 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, XL I shall next proceed to prove that the hope of the Jews is self-destructive, for that they are ex- pecting a Messiah whom they ought not, inas- much as, on every rational principle, a Messiah such as the Jews expect is an impossibility. The conclusion must be apparent to those who aro sincere in their desire to embrace the truth, as they will be unable to resist the force of the evi- dence which I shall adduce. I might well be discouraged and disheartened by the hopelessness of reaping any fruit from my labors, seeing how inadequate my arguments must be to destroy your stubbornness, when Christ with his mira- cles could not vanquish the obstinacy of your predecessors. But surely the human understand- ing cannot for ever resist the force of truth, how- ever unfavorable the inclination may be to its reception. I will address myself to your judg- ment and not to your will; I say, not to your will, because words cannot conquer obstinate de- termination; but rather to your judgment, be- ca«se the understanding must give assent to truth. Only attend to me with a pious affection of the will, without previous obduracy of heart, and your judgment cannot fail to bo so convinc- ed as to cause you to abjure sincerely your error, and renounce your opposition. We will now en- ter upon the discussion, and begin by adducing the particulars that were predicted concerning the Messiah. ARCHBISHOP OP CRANGANOR. XIL 17 In order to prove to you the impossibility of the Messiah whom you expect, by the actual predictions from which you infer what the Mes- siah is to be when he comes, and to make appa- rent 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 fash- ioned 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 Mes- siah 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 ap- pear, 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 Ecryp. tian 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 attri- 18 SERMON OP JUSTINIANO, ARCHBIsnOP OF CRANGANOR. 19 h butes, 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 Sanhedririf chap. Belelc. XIII. Again I ask you, The Messiah whom you still expect, presuming him more powerful than Ze- rubbabol or Moses, is he to bo a mere man as these two were, or will he be man and God, as these two were not ? On the reply to this de- pends the truth of our foith and the falsity of yours. A modern sect among your Rabbins ad- vises you to give no reply to this question (and they do well, for your reply would infallibly ena- ble 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 ad- vent of the Messiah is not an article of your fliith, and that Judaism does not consist in that expec- tation, but in the true observance of the law of Moses, wbich is the only thing obligatory on the Jews. XIV. To understand correctly this point, it is requi- site to know that, with regard to the Messiah, the Jews of the present day are divided into two entirely different and opposite opinions. Some gay, and that is the general opinion among your wretched people, that the Messiah has not yet come. Others assert that he came one thousand six hundred and thirty-two years ago, having been born at the period when Titus destroyed Jerusalem. So it is written in the Talmud in Beresheet Raha (which is in substance a copious commentary upon Genesis) chap. Echa. Also in the book Sanhedrin in the chapter Cum similiter. And as it is maintained, according to this opin- ion, that the Messiah has already come, no less than one thousand six hundred and thirty-two years must have elapsed since his advent; and yet, during all that time, no Jew has seen him. Some even say that he is still wandering un- known about the world ; others, that he stands at the gates of Rome in company with the poor, soliciting alms; others, that he is concealed in the Caspian hills, with such precautions, that if an attempt should be made to go in search of him, the river Sabbatine would present an invin- cible obstruction ; for on any Jew's approaching its margin, its waters are suddenly petrified, and rain down so heavy a shower of stones on the unfortunate intruders, that they either are killed on the spot or are compelled to retire, leaving their Messiah in his enchanted hiding-place. XY. Others, knowing that the Caspian hills were within our reach, and considering the fable of the Sabbatine river perfectly ridiculous, had recourse !| 20 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, i I to Paradise, saying that the Messiah is entertain- ed there in the company of Moses and Elijah ; and that when the time should come, God would send him to deliver the Jews. To these two opinions may be added a third of the modern Eabbins, asserting that the Messiah has not come, nor ever will come, since God has not promised it in the Scriptures, nor is his advent an article of faith with the Jews. This newly invented opinion is so little followed, that as yet I have not met with any other person professing it, be- side one Francisco Antonio de Olivares, a Castil- ian by birth, who was expelled this city the 14th Jul}', 1G8G, and died professing this article of be- lief, or rather this absurdity, for such all the Jews uniformly consider it, as we read in the Talmud, Treatise Sanhedrinj chap. Helcky where the Rab- bins expressly avow that there was no prophet who did not make mention of the advent of the Messiah : *^ Omnes prophetce aliquid de Messiah j^rce- dixerunV The like is affirmed in Ycdcut in the exposition of chapter Ixvi. of Isaiah, p. 3G8. To this truth every Jew in fact bears witness, when on the Sabbath day, in all the Synagogues, they chant the celebrated Hebrew hymn Yigdal Elo- him Hayy wherein they entreat God t-o hasten the advent of the Messiah. But not to dwell on an article that is acknowledged universally by every Synagogue, the testimony of Eabbi Moses of Egypt, one of the most ancient of the Jewish ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 21 Rabbins, will suffice to establish the fact. This Rabbi observes, in his exposition of the creed that the eleventh article is the acknowledgment of the Messiah, in which the Jews are to believe ^vith a perfect faith, under the penalty, in case they should reject it, of being reputed heretics by their Synagogues. ^^Undecimus articulus est Messias, et hunc tcnentur Hebmi firma fide credere et venturum sperare, prout omnes prophetce predixe^ runt Et qui ham veritatem negaverit a lege disce^ dere et hareticum reputari deheretJ* XYI. These two opinions being premised, as those that the Jews hold concerning the Messiah, tell me, O children of Israel, was the Messiah who came at the period of the destruction of your city, or is the Messiah, who is, as you imagine, yet to come, to be a man or God and man united? This question being pressed, you will all reply that he was or is to be simply man. Then if such were your Messiah who has already come or if such is to be the Messiah whom you still expect to come, know of a certainty none such will come, nor has yet come; for the Messiah whom you say is to be, or already has been, is totally impossible : and what is impossible cannot have happened in the past, nor can happen at any fu- ture time. The Messiah must be God and man • for God revealed to us by his prophets that the 22 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, I Messiah was to possess the combination of tlie two natures, human and divine. And it is im- possible that God shoukl speak untruth, or that God should deceive; and it is equally impossible that there should be anv true Messiah with other attributes than such as God revealed would ap- pertain to the true Messiah. Therefore the Mes- siah whom your hopes induce you to imagine will still come, because he has not yet appeared, or the Messiah whom, notwithstanding his hav- ing already come, you still expect to accomplish your deliverance, is impossible in his very na- ture. Being impossible, he cannot have come already, nor can he remain to come; consequent- ly, your expectation defeats itself, and will never be realized. Hope, then, as long as you please, you who re- solve to remain Jews; but undeceive yourselves, for if your Messiah was or is to be as you expect, he never will be nor has he been; for such a Mes- siah is an impossibility. Now hearken to your prophets. XVII. To the two prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, among several others, God revealed who was to be the Messiah that lie had determined to send into the world. Isaiah, in the ninth chapter of his prophecies, described him thus, conformably to your Hebrew text : ^^Infans natus est nobis, et filins datus est nobis, et erit principatus super hu- ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 23 merum ejus: et vocabitur nomen ejus Admirabilis, Manns, Deus, Fortis, Pater SempUernus, [or Pater Sempiterniiatisl Princeps Pax; ad multipW candumprincipatumetpacis non erit finis, super so- Hum David et super regnum ejus sedebit, ut confiri^ et Iliad et eorroboret in judicio et jusfitia a modo et vsquc in sernpiternum." -Unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders : he shall be called ^\ onderful, Counsellor, God, Powerful, everlast- ing father [or the Father of Eternity], Prince ofPeace [or Prince Peace]; whose empire shall be greatly augmented, he shall sit on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and strengthen it in judgment and justice henceforth and to all eternity.'' X71IL God made the same, or nearly the same reve- lation, with a slight difference, to the prophet Jereniiah, chapters xxiii and xxxiii, according to your Hebrew text: -Fcce dies venient, dieit JDomi- nus; etsuseitabo David germen justum, et regnabit Rex et intelliget; et faciei judieium et justitiam in terra In diebus illis salvabitur Juda, et Israel ha- bitabit adfiduciam; et hoc est nomen quod vocabunt eum: Jehova (seu Tetragrammaton) Justus nosterJ' Ihe time will come, says God, that I will pro- duce for David a scion of his stock, he shall reign as king, shall be wise and shall execute judgment 24 BERMON OF JUSTINIANO, and justice on the earth; and in that time Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall unite with him in perfect confidence. The name he is to bear is that of God Jehovah (or the Tetragrammaton) our righteous one." XIX. These two prophets thus furnish, in their re- spective predictions, two signs, whereby you, as Jews, might recognise the promised Messiah. — Isaiah says, he is to be born a child: " Infans na- tus est.'* That he was to be given at a certain time: ^'l^ilius daius est.'' That he was to bear upon his shoulders : *^ Super humerinn ejus." That he was to hold the sovereignt}' which should in- crease and extend : " Ad multipUcandum imperU urn." That he was to sit on the throne and be placed over the kingdom of David: ^^ Super solium Davidy et super regnum ejus." This is the first sign that the prophet gives, whereby to recognise the Messiah. But he says, moreover, that besides all these predictions, there will be another sign -which appertains to the true Messiah, whereby be may be known. " For his surname shall bo called. Wonderful (Admirabilis), CounscWor (Con- ciliarius)y God {Dtus), Powerful {Fortes'), Ever- lasting Father {Pater Sempiternus), [or, Father of Eternity {Pater Sempiternitatis)], Prince of Peace {Pr biceps Pacis), [or. Prince Peace {Princeps Pax)]'.' — that the peace should have no end: ^^Et pads non erit finis:" that his empire should* ARCHBISHOP OF CRANOANOR. 25 endure from now unto all eternity—"^ modo et vsque in sempiternum." This is the second sign of the Messiah. The first sign clearly proves that the Messiah is to be man ; for if the Messiah is to be born a child, to be produced in time, to bear on his shoulders an empire that will increase and extend, and be placed on the throneof David and over his kingdom, the Messiah must of necessity be man, for man alone can satisfy these condi- tions. XX. The second sign is a conclusive demonstration of the divinity of the Messiah, for if the Messiah is to bear the names that the prophet said he should, and to be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God, Powerful, Everlasting Father, or Father of Eternity, to hold perpetual sovereignty, kingdom without end and peace interminable: then, since no man who is only mere man, can have inter- minable peace, a kingdom without end, perpetual empire, nor be Eternal Father, or Father of Eternity, be called God, or have the name of God appropriated to him, it follows that the Messiah must be God, since these attributes can only be- long to Ilim who is God. It follows, according to the first-mentioned conditions, that the Mes- siah must be nv.in ; and, according to the second, that he must be God; consequently, the Messiah must be both God and man. fi 26 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, ARCHBISHOP or CRANGANOR. 27 Nil' ^ I ■•l. XXI. The words of Jeremiah corroborate this argu- ment, and also furni.sh two signs whcreb}' the Messiah may be recognised ; for he says, the Mes- siah was to bo hereafter: ^^ Ecce dies venicnt.'* That he should appear in course of time : " Sus- citabo." That he was to be of the line of David: " Gcrmen Davids That he should execute jus- tice : " Facit Justitiiun ;" and that this justice was to be done on earth : " In terra." That he should become king: ^^ Et regnal it 7iVx."That he should in time save tiie Jews: ^^ Salvahltur Juda ;'^ — and that the Jews are to live under him in perfect confidence : " Israel haOitabit ad fiducium." All these circumstances prove that the Messiah must bo man, because with man only are these circum- stances compatible. XXII. The Messiah, besides what we have already quoted from the prophet, was to be called by the proper name of God; and this name God was not to be any one indifferently of those applied to the Deity; but solely, that most sacred nameJe- hovahj which signifies in every way the existence of God and the essence of llis eternity (as I shall presently prove from the Kabbins,) which name and the applied attribute are compatible with God alone. For inasmuch as it appertains to God alone to be self-existent, so to God alone can ap- pertain this name which asserts His uncreated- ness and His eternity: so that if God says, that this is the name the Messiah was to bear, either the Messiah must be God, orGod places us in pe- ril of adoring the Messiah as God, all the while that he is not God; since we should see the Mes- Biah boaringas his proper name,, that name which he could not bear unless he were God. God can- not be the cause of error or deception. Accordino" to the first-mentioned titles which God revealed the Messiah was to bear, he must be Man- ac- cording to the second Goo: therefore the Mes- siah is both God and Man. Kow, if you expect in the Messiah, man only, and not God, you ex- pect an impossible Messiah. For the 3Iessiah, upon that supposition, could not have those' names ascribed to him which God said the Mes- siah should have. The prophets have told you that the Messiah is to be both God and Man; and you, in opposition to your prophets, throuli man, is at the present time a dream, in the past a shadow, and in the future will prove a fable. XXIII. "What solution do you give to these two pro- phecies that are so clearly adverse to your expec- tation ? What answer do you make to a demon- stration so decisive against your delusion ? You must either believe or disbelieve what your two prophets have declared. If you believe them, how can you possibly expect a Messiah in contradic- tion to what they have foretold? If you do not believe them, why deceive the world, or why de- ceive yourselves by still calling yourselves Jews? I am well aware that you will answer me, that although as unlearned men you do not know how to reply to these prophecies, yet your teachers arc perfectly competent to solve these difficulties, and that if you were in Holland, Venice, Leg- horn, or Turin, we should not be able to press you so hard ; for that in those places you have Rabbins, who, as men of education and learning, well know how to explain these passages, and are competent to reply to such arguments. Now I will stand in their place, and have onl}- to re- quest that you will consent to abide by the an- swers of your teachers and the exposition of your Rabbins, for I will repeat to you all that they write and teach with the object of throwing doubt upon our faith, in order that I may clearly de- monstrate to you the falsity of their doctrines; ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 29 and I take God, who will judge us all, as witness, that I will relate to you all that your masters lay down, with a view to expound these difficulties; or rather, to use the words of your own Eabbi Samuel, I will repeat all your teachers have ad- vanced, in order to deceive you and themselves '^Dominer Bays this rabbi, writing to Rabbi Isaac, '^Domine, mi viddur quod decipimus alios et nos ijpsos." XXIV. Rabbi Eben Ezra, after he saw that he would be obliged, according to the text of Isaiah, to con- fess the Messiah to be God, fearing lest he should be cast out of the Synagogue, in order to keep in with the Jews, denied that the prophet spoke of the Messiah in that passage, alleging that the text alluded to king Ilezekiah ; and Rabbi Solo- mon, who was esteemed a Solomon among all the Jews, in order to deceive you, professed the same opinion; but perceiving that this interpretation would be easily refuted by the text, with a view to support his error, ventured to vitiate the ori- ginal Hebrew, thereby committing a heavy crime, since there is an express command in Deut. iv. 2 wherein God forbids the committal of so wicked an act, " JVon addetis super verbo, quod ego prceci- pio vobis nee minuetis ex eo," So reads your He- brew text. The modern rabbins explain in like manner, the passage in Jeremiah, for they also deny that the prophet spoke of the Messiah, I 30 SERMON OP JUSTINIANO, some affirming that he alhidcs to David, and oth- ers to Zerubbabcl; but all alike join in corrupting the sense of the text, and maintain that the name of God does not prove the divinity of the Mes- siah, fur that it either is not ascribed, in the text to the Messiah, or even if it is so ascribed, the Scriptures show that the name of God is fre- quently applied to other objects besides the Deity. XXV. Such are the answers that your teachers make to our demonstrations; but these need only to be stated for their falsehood to become apparent. Two fi^lse assertions are contained in the an- swers of your rabbins. The first, that those pas- sajros in Isaiah and Jeremiah were not intended to refer to the Messiah. The second, that, in the passage from Isaiah, the prophet speaks of King Hezekiah; and in that from Jeremiah, the pro- phet speaks of David or Zerubbabel. Moreover, that the name of God applied to the Messiah in these two passages, does not prove that the Mes- siah was God, even if they bo allowed to refer to the Messiah; for that either the Messiah does not take upon himself the name of God, or even if he did assume that name, it would be no proof of Lis divinity. And that you may clearly see that the whole of this taught you by your rabbins is a gross falsehood and absurdity^ I will show you with what ease their doctrines admit of refuta- ARCHBISIIOP OF CRANGANOR. 31 tion, and we will begin with showing that the two passages do refer to the Messiah. XXYL The Targum, or Clialdee paraphrase of Eabbi Jonathan lion Uziel, that is, Eabbi Jonathan son of Uziel, which some authors, evincincr the little knowledge they had of the Ilebrevv writings, confound with the Targum of Onkelos, tlms translates into Chaldee this passage of Isaiah fol- lowing the text of the Hebrew. <^ Infans natus est nobis, Filius datus est noOis, et suscipiet legem super se, ad conservandam earn, et vocahitur nomen ejus, MModam, Beus fortis, permanens in soecula sceculorum Messiah:' This book is held so sacred among the Jews, that, down to the present day, no one of your Synagogues has ventured to reject or controvert it, not alone from its venerable antiquity (for it was composed one thousand seven hundred and forty-seven years ago, forty- two years before Christ), but because in all your schools which you improperly call "Synagogues,^' it is read every Sabbath day equally with the Torah, that is, the Pentateuch of Moses. Moreover, you or your rabbins (who have invented your ridiculous fie- tions,) have made your belief in this book a mat- ter of public notoriety, from having had put into your head the well-known fable to the effect that when Jonathan was composing it, if a fly chanced 32 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, t to light on tlie paper on which he was writing, there came instantly a fire from heaven which consumed the fly, but left the paper untouched : a fine story for men of sense to believe in ! Kow, if the Targum which is admitted as a book of infallible authority and as canonical, and the truth of which has been always held to be incontrovertible, explains the passage from the prophet Isaiah as relating to the Messiah, it must unquestionably be wrong in any Jew to deny that the prophet did not here allude to the Messiah. XXVII. The same sense as is given in the Targum, Tve find in Bercsheet liubfja, in the largo glossary on Gen. iv. where it says, viz : — " Xon est autem no- men Domini hie, nisi Rex Messias, ut dictum est: Principatus super humerum ejus!" To these books which you hold as sacred and infallible, wo will add the authority of the rabbins, to prove that the passage relates to the Messiah. Eabbi Joseph Gali- leo, in his preface to the Lamentations, which are called in Hebrew, Echa liubbathi, being asked the name of the Messiah, answered thus — ^^JS^omen Messice Pax script urn estyCnim princeps pads Moyses Egyptio" This rabbi, whom by distinction you call "the great preacher," also says in his epistle named Jijaret Temarij written to the rabbins in Africa, " Omnia nomina hie posita ah Isaia, ix. cum epithetis suis dicuntur de puero nato qui est Bex ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. gg Messias." Consequently the opinions of Kabbi Eben Ezra, and of the other rabbins who deny that the passage treats of the Messiah, must bo erroneous; for besides being in opposition to so many ancient rabbins it is contrary to the Tar- gum, which you admit to be an authentic work, and even recognise as sacred. XXVIII. By the same evid.mce, it may be proved that the passage in Jeremiah is meant of the Messiah, which we consider to be the case not only be- cause your most learned and most ancient rabbins who flourished in your synagogues acknowledge it, but because we find the same in the Targum of Jonathan. "7/i temjjore illo statuam Messiam justum et hoc est nomen quod ipsi dicent ei: Te- tragrammaton Justus nostcry The same we infer from the book Midrash Tehilim, which is a com- mentary on the Psalms, where the text is thus expounded : ''Domine in virtute tua Mahitur Bexr Also in this book we read, " Quod est Messim no- men est illud quod dicitur," in cap. xxiii. Jeremiad, ''Bominus Justus noster." The like we infer from' the book Echa liabbathi, where expounding that part of Lamentations, " Longe /actus est a me con- solator/' Eabbi Abba, speaking of the Messiah, writes thus : Quia elongatus est a me consolator convertens animam meam. Quod est nomen Mes- simf Deus Jehova est nomen ejus, sicut dictum est I m 34 SERMON OF JUSTINIAXO, Jeremlcey* cap. xxiii. " Et hoc est nomcn quod vo- cabunt ewm, Dominus Justus noster." This is proved from an infinite number of rabbins and books admitted by the Jews, which, in order not to waste time, I shall refrain from quoting. We are thus provided with a ready answer to your teach- ers, which proves them to be guilty of fallacy and falsehood in denying that these passages in the two prophets treat of the Messiah, because, they know not how to reply to the evidence of the demonstration we have given, and being deter- inined to remain Jews, reject the interpretation both of the canonical books, and their most an- cient rabbins, in order to persevere in error. XXIX. Eben Ezra and Rabbi Solomon, being thus convicted of falsehood, in denying that these prophets speak of the Messiah, we will now pro- ceed to convict them of a second error in affirm- ing that the passage in Isaiah applies to King Hezekiah, and also to expose the error of other Eabbins, in affirming that the text in Jeremiah alludes to David or Zerubbabel; and that tho name of God applied in these two places to the Messiah, does not prove his divinity, even grant- ing that they are applied to him: in other words, that the name of God is not applied to the Mes- siah, or even if so applied, is not sufficient to prove his divinity. ARCHBISHOP or CRANGANOR. 85 XXX. Fii^t :— If the prophecy of Isaiah is to be un- derstood to treat of Hezekiah, as these Rabbins pretend, they are bound to show us how the pre- diction of the prophet has been fulfilled in Heze- kiah. But this they cannot show, as to do so they must either deny chapter xviii. of the 4th [2nd] Book of Kings, or must pronounce that the Scripture declares what is untrue, or has been falsified in this chapter. For if the prophet thus speaks of Hezekiah, of necessity Hezekiah was not called Hezekiah, but God; and this alone must have been his name. Farthermore, it must be shown that Hezekiah was the prince of peace, and the peace in his time was perpetual; also that he was Eternal Father, or Father of Eter- nity, and his dominion exists at this day, and will have no end; for all this can be inferred from the aforementioned passage in Isaiah, that he was to be the Son— born of Him of whom the prophet treats in chapter ix. Nothing of all this has been realized in Hezekiah, nor can be real- ized, but the direct contrary is shown in the sa- crcd text. Therefore it is false to assert that the prophet speaks of Hezekiah. XXXI. That no one ever called Hezekiah a God, and that the designation of God was never bestowed on that prince, is most certain, because we can- I 86 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, not trace from Scripture that such title has been given to him; but, on the contrary, he is there never called by any other name than Ilezekiah. That he never was nor could be the Eternal Fa- ther, or Father of Eternity, our natural reason is sufficient to convince us, for Ilezekiah was no- toriously a man; and it is incumbent upon your teachers to show when and how these epithets, which are the attributes of the Deity, were or could be rationally ascribed to Ilezekiah; for none can be an everlasting Father, or Father of Eternity, unless his own existence were to all eternity, which is not the case with any other than the Deity. They must show us that this king and his generation exist at the present day, and that his dominion was multiplied, instead of being divided as it was, when he received it from his father. They must show us how the kingdom of David is strengthened and established at this day, and was not diminished and ruined in the time of his son Menasseh. But in order that this point may rest on more than mere assertion, we ■will establish it from the Scriptures. XXXII. The sacred text of chapter xviii. of the 4th Book of Kings, is quite opposed to this exposi- tion of your Rabbins. Hezekiah was so far from extending his dominion, that he received only a portion of his father's kingdom. No sooner did AECHBISHOP OP CRANGANOR. 37 he nssnme the reins of government than all the pnneipal fortified cities of his kingdom were ta- ken by Sannacherib; and in order to rid himself of he danger that threatened it, he gave the in- vadcr three hundred talents of silver and thirty of gold; and, to pay this tribute, was compelled not only to exhaust his treasury, but to with- draw from the temple the silver and gold which It contained. The peace conceded to him was of so short a duration, that his whole reign was a perpetual warfare: and finally his son lost the wl.ole of his empire, and the establishment of the house of David came to an end in his person, in which the succession to the throne was lost and cstniguishcd; since no other descendants of ilezekiah now exists, nor is the kingdom of that prince in being at the present day. All this hap- pened to Uezekiah, as we see in chapters xviii SIX, and XX. of the 4th Book of Kings; and what-' ever 18 drawn from those chapters is an article of faith with you. Kothing of all this was to Jiappen according to the predictions of Isaiah • therefore either the prophecy itself, or the ac- count given in Kings, or the interpretation of tlie Eabbms, must be false. For if the prophet says that the One prophesied of was to be called God, to be prince of peace, and that to his peace there should be no end; to be Eternal Father or a Father of Eternity; that he was to have in- creased dominion; and that his kingdom was to 38 SERMON OP JUSTINIANO, K'l' be endless, and that he should perpetually estab- lish the throne of David: then, since the passage in the Book of Kings informs us that every thing that happened to Ilezckiah was contrary to what Isaiah had promised, it follows (if the exposition of this Kabbin is correct) that either the prophet, in what he has asserted, has spoken untruly, or else that the text in the Book of Kim's is false in its statement of events. The prophet cannot deceive, nor can the text in Kings be disputed; therefore the fault must bo with your Kabbins, who seek to verify in Ilezckiah what is totally inconsistent with bis character. And would you found your hopes on so palpable a fallacy ? XXXIII. Unable to evade this dilemma, Eabbi Solo- mon and others have dared to vitiate the text of Isaiah and Jeremiah, in order to refute the opin- ion, that the Messiah was to be God, notwith- standing what the prophets declare to the con- trary. Your Eabbins, seeing that, however they might labor to explain away the two texts, they could not keep out of view the divinity of the Messiah, in order to maintain themselves and you in the Jewish faith, laid down that the texts were not to be read as if the Messiah was to bo called Powerful, Counsellor, Prince of Peace, or as if the name of God was the name the Messiah was to be known by, but as follows: "Dews, For- tiSj qui est AdmirahiliSj Concilarius, et Fater futu- ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 39 ri Scvcxdi, vocahit Regcm Messiah, Frincipem pads;' as if the Messiah was to bear the name of the Prince of Peace: and that God was not to be the Messiah, but to bestow on the Messiah the title of Prince of Peace; and likewise that the pas- sage in Jeremiah should not be read thus— "JTbc est iiomen quod vocabunt eum: Dominus Justus nos- ter/' but as follows: ''vombit eum Deus Justus jios- ter/' construing therefrom, that it is God who gave the name, and that the Messiah is the per- son named. These barbarians, by thus corrupt- ing the former text, and substituting vocabit for vocabitur in Isaiah, and for vocabunt m Jeremiah, have concluded that the Messiah did not ascribe' to himself the name of God; but they deceive themselves, for all this labor serves no other end than to prove their own falsehood and audacity. Of this I shall now proceed to give you the most ample evidence. XXXIY. In that passage of Isaiah where the word vehi^ care, meaning vocabitur, occurs in the Hebrew, E^abbi Solomon, who was a notorious corrupter of the sacred text, has audaciously substituted vahycrd, which means vocavit. And in Jeremiah, where in the original icreii is written, which means vocabunt, he has substituted icreo, which means vocavit. It is a very easy matter to intro- duce such a corruption in the Hebrew; for, it should be borne in mind that the sacred text is jp 'i 1 '(' 40 SERMON OP JUSTINIANO, always read without points; and even at this day the scroll of the Bible that is used in all your Synagogues is written without points; stops and punctuation only began to be in use in the Bible lour hundred and seventy-six years after the birth of Christ, the first inventors being Rabbi Jacob Ben Naphtali, and Rabbi Aaron Ben As- ser; the sacred books, before their time, having always been read witbout the points. When Chri.st came, the Jews, wishing to disprove his divinity, began to vitiate the Scriptures by means of the points. Vehlcarey that is, vocabitur, and vahycrdj which signifies vocavity are written with the same letters (the points alone serving to dis- tinguish them), and in like manner icreOj w^hich means vocavity is composed of the same letters as icreiif which means vocabunt. In order to corrupt the text in Jeremiah, they took the letter vaUy w.hich corresponds with our vowel w, and remov- ing the dot which is placed in the middle of that letter, and makes icreiij they transferred it to an- other letter, so that the vowel u changes into o, and thereby converts icreii into icreo; thus, by the slight change of removing a single point from one letter to another, the text in Jeremiah has been materially altered. XXXY. In Isaiah the text has been altered as follows: vehicare which is voca bit ur or vocabunt, and vahycrd I ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 41 which means vocavity are both written with the same letters. The vowel point kamets which was under the coph is transposed, and what was vaMj^ care becomes vahycrd. All this trouble and labor on the part of your rabbins, and among them Rab- bi Solomon (whose chief business in the world seems to have consisted in leading you into er- ror), you have thought fit to sanction. But wo shall have no difficulty in confuting and exposing his falsehood; for if we refer to the Septnagint^ which was written one thousand nine hundred and eighty-nine years ago, and about two hun- dred and eiglity-four before Christ, and to the Targum, written one thousand seven hundred and forty-two years ago, or forty-two years be- fore the birth of Christ, we shall find that they both read vocabitur or vahycare and not vahycrd in Isaiah; and icreit (which is vocabunt) and not icreo, (vocavit) in the text of Jeremiah. Since, then' Jonathan who wrote in Chaldee, and the Seventy who wrote in Greek, agree in putting vocabitur in the first i)lace and vocabunt in the second, it is beyond doubt that they must have been thus in the original which they translated. If you will not allow that it is so at the present day, it must follow that the text has been altered. That be- ing supposed — XXXVI. Tell me dispassionately whom are we to follow, and whom to believe? Rabbi Solomon, who so I i?:i 42 SEBMON OF JUSTINIANO, many years after the birth of Christ tells us that in these passages we find vocabit, vahycrd, and icreOy in order to support his theory — or the Se- venty interpreters, who were selected by the Jews exclusively from among themselves as the wisest men the Synagogue could produce, to ren- der the Hebrew text into Greek, and who, not- withstanding they were separated from each other, agree in attesting, two hundred and eighty-four years before the birth of Christ, thai the original text was vahicare and icreu, as is proved by their rendering the words as vocabitur and vocabuntf I again ask — in which of these two parties should we confide? In Rabbi Solomon, notorious for the immense number of the corruptions of sa- cred text that pervade his works, and who is comparatively but of yesterday? — or the Tar- gum, written forty-two years before the coming of Christ, w4iich uses in the Chaldee vocabitur and vocabuntf as corresponding with icreic and vahy- care in the original ? Years and years before this rabbi wrote, the text was always read one way; and he was the first to propose that it should be read differently; can you then believe that he has delivered to you the truth? So many years previously to Rabbi Solomon's coming into the world, the texts were rendered in a different way from that in which he wishes they should now be read; consequently you must acknowledge it to be the tact that he has been guilty of cor- ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 43 rupting them. With this demonstration before you beheve as you please. But if you prefir Eabbi Solomon to the Targum, and to the Se venty, you will act in opposition to that re ve" once.nwh^ XXXVII. That the application of the name of God to th« Mess.ah, in both these places, p.-oves his divi„it IS an argument which you and your teachers ro' ject, urg,ng that the divinity of the Mess Ih ,^ not proved by the name of God having been ai! P .ed to h,m, inasmuch as this name is app, edfn Scnpture to many created objects; this is a rid. culous notion proceeding either fr'om your igLo" ranee or apostasy. We do not deny that tht »ames of God are applied in Scripture to an t finite number of creatures rational and irratioL al, Without proving thereby that such creatures are gods. But the point in question is, whether we cannot prove that the name JehovahX^Z s more espech^lly the name of God, and denotes that He IS an Eternal Essence, is never attributed to any other besides Himself If after thatta, been shown, we can demonstrate that this name has been assigned to the Messiah, it necessarZ follows that he must be God. ^ XXXVIII. If you are willing to discover the truth, let ns carefully consult our Scriptures and youra. I„ 44 SEBMON OF JUSTINIANO, the sacred book, ten several names are appropri- ated to God. "El," which signifies Fortcm—''^^' baoth," which mci\n9 Lord of Valor or of Hosts — "Serccie,"* which means Misit me ad vos — '^EU yon" wliich means jKrct^/swrn— "Elohim," "Eloe," "Ja," "Adonai," wliich all mean the same as "Ja," which signifies 6W—"Shaddai," which means Omnipotent; and besides these, there is a more special name, Tetragrammaton, as it is called by the Greeks, or the ineffable Name of God, which the Jews call the name of four letters, yod^ hey vaVy he. Of these four letters or names is com- posed the most sacred name Jehovahj which is held so sacred among your people that, when you invoke the name of the Deity, you do not pre- sume to utter the name Jehovah (except it be the High-priest on occasion of certain sacrifices), and on your hearing it pronounced, you prostrate your faces to the ground. Hence it comes, that when you meet this name in writing, you neither read nor pronounce it, but in its stead you substi- tute the word "Adonai." Neither you, nor the Greeks, nor the Latins, have as yet discovered its true signification. The Latins explain it by Deus or Dominus, the Greeks by Tetragrammaton, and the Hebrews by Adonai. And what is still ***Serccie" is not Hebrew, and probably was intended for Ehyeh meaning / am,— see Ex. iii. 14, "I AM hath sent me unto you.'' [Or more correctly *'I will be," as Ehyeh is the future, first person singular of hayah^ to be.] ARCHBISHOP OP CRANaANOR. 45 more, you wait for the Messiah to come, to know how it should be pronounced; for you say that he alone is acquainted with its true pronunciation. This being conceded, see what follows: The name Jehovah belongs exclusively to God, and signifies in the most explicit manner Self-exist- ence, and as such cannot be communicated to any other than God (for with such a being alone is the attribute of absolute self-existence compati- ble). So that the Messiah must be God; for this name has been applied to him. All the other be- fore-mentioned names, wherewith God is invoked, are ascribed to creatures, as you will find at every step in the Scriptures. But as regards the name Jehovah which has been applied to the Messiah, you cannot point out a single place in the Scriptures where it is ascribed to any other being except to the Messiah, and to God; to put this point beyond doubt, hear what Rabbi Moses says in his book called More, chap. vi. *' Cuncta nomina Dei excelsi, quce inveniuntur in Scripturis, ab aliqua certa operatione derivantur. Ad nornen istud, quod quatuor Uteris constat, nomen est particulare, et unicum Deo excelso, significatque Essentiam Divinam cum manifestd determinatione ad solum Deum absque aliqua cequi vocatione et com- municatione ad alterum qui Deus non sit." And in the same chapter he adds, " Certe alia nomina Dei sunt nomina quce declarant aliquam operationem a qua derivantur. At verb hoc nomen quatuor litera- 46 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, #: rum non est cognitum ah aliqua derivatione et alteri non communicatur nisi soli Deo." Therefore if this name beyond all others, according to the Scrij^)- tures and the rabbins, is so especially the attri- bute of God, and is incommunicable to any other being, this name having been given to the Mes- siah, fully establishes bis divinity; and your teachers, who well know the truth of what I am stating, purposely confound together the differ- ent names of God, with the express object of mis- leading you on this very point. XXXIX. To conclude this discourse, it only remains to prove the falsehood of the interpretation of your rabbins, in attributing to David or Zerubbabel the passage in Jeremiah. Observe, my brethren, that Jeremiah prophesied three hundred and eighty-six years after David's death. That prince, being dead, could not return to life, nor could he exist at a future time, having already existed in time past; so that if David was the subject of the prophecy, the prophet would not say that David was to live ysuscitabo) but that he had lived. He would not say that he shoidd he called {vocabunt) but that he had been called. He would not say that he should sit on the throne (sedebif) but that he had already been seated. Nor would he say he should be wise (sapiens erit) but that he was wise. He would not say that he should be king (regna- bit rex) but that he had been king. He would not ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 47 say that he should execute jvLdgment (faciei justi. tiam in terra) but that he had executed judgment on earth, so that the prophecy would imply ac- cording to that interpretation, that David, who had lived, was again to appear. Consequently, the prophecy cannot be understood to relate to David. Much less can it be taken with reference to Zerubbabel, as may be shown, not by exactly the same arguments with which we have refuted the hypothesis of its applying to David, but by others equally convincing. Firstly, because the name Jehovah was not, and could not be applica- ble to Zerubbabel, as we have shown you from your rabbins. Secondly, the person prophesied of, was to be king (regnabit rex). Zerubbabel was not a king, whether you consider him under the ^abylonian captivity or after he was restored to J udea. In the time of this prince, the people did not live securely under his government, which was another circumstance that was to appertain to the party prophesied of, ^^et Israel habitabit ad fiduciam;* for we learn the direct contrary from the Scriptures. The book of Esdras informs us, that, after the people were restored and were living under the government of Zerubbabel, they were m such a state of insecurity, that as they lifted up the stones to build the temple with one hand, they held the sword to defend their works m the other. Moreover after a short interval, Zerubbabel abandoned the government of Judea m 48 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, and went back to Babylon; consequently the prophecy has not been verified in Zerubbabel. Thus easily may we refute the assertions of your rabbins; but the worst is, that, in spite of all the evidence we can produce, you remain unwilling to confess your error, and obstinately retain your belief in these false doctrines. XL. Be persuaded, my brethren, be persuaded to believe what your prophets have told you, and cease to cling to the absurdities which two igno- rant rabbins have put into your head, and to which you only yield your belief, that you may have an excuse for remaining Jews. Kesolve to open your eyes, and consent to be convinced by the truth; for you have too long allowed your- selves to be imposed upon by a falsehood. Ac- knowledge that 3'ou cannot obtain freedom so long as you do not change the nature of your hopes; for the redeemer you look for is impossi- ble, because it is impossible to have a Messiah without his being both God and man. This has been foretold you by the prophets, as you have already heard; and the like is affirmed by your rabbins, as you shall now hear; for in this opin- ion the most learned men, your Synagogue ever had, are of one accord. XLI. Eabbi Hosea, in the opinion of some, or Rabbi Simeon ben Jochay, in the opmion of others, who ARCHBIsnOP OF CRANGANQR. 49 flourished many years before the birth of Christ being two of the most ancient rabbins of the iy. nagogue-ia expounding the prophet Hosea speaks t us.y^Woe to the impious and homi da( Jevvs who shall murder the Messiah, the Son of God; for there be those who when God sendsTnto sms, shall resist and put him to death when he comes. <^ Dens sanctus et benedictus mittet Filium sanctum suum et came Inunana se induct , vceUU^Z pnskomcidis Israel^ o, quorum arnorcrn rnitttZs Fchum suum^ut eis pcccata dimUtat quia propter pravas suas opiniones crunt rebellcs hi MeJce It ingenti iracundicc perciti cum Occident:* This is what your rabbi tells you you would do to the Messiah who was the Son of God. And what more do we say? If the Messiah was the Son of God, and this Son of God clothed himself with human flesh, according to what this Rabbi has acknow edged so long before the Messiah appear- ed must not the Messiah have been both God and ^, , I 3, ,^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^^ God not s ay h.m; but in so far as he was man, you did slay him. Thus the Messiah was both God and man. XLII. Babbi Haecadosh, whom by distinction you call the Holy Rabbi, and who flourished one huJ! Chnst (fur he lived m the time of the Maccabees), VI lie 50 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, in his celebrated work, called in the Hebrew Gala Razeya, which signifies the revealing of se- crets, speaking of the Messiah, in his exposition of the 9th chapter of the prophet Isaiah, which we have just explained, writes thus: — '^Quia Messias Deus et Homo futurus est, ideo vocatus est Emmanuelj quod interpretatus nobiscum Deus." — "Because the Messiah lias to be both God and man, therefore he shall be called Emmanuel, which means God with us." He repeats this truth still more clearly in another passage, as you will find on referring to a Hebrew work which you call The Gates of Light: — "i?ex Messias componi- tur ex Divinitate et Ilumanitatey et in substantia Megis Messice inveniuntur duce filiationes quarum una est Divinitatis, qua Dei filius est, altera erit humanitatiSy qua erit filius prophetissce. In Messia substantia Divinitatis distincta erit a substantia humanitatis et e contra. Qua; duo simul juncta sunt in Messia." "The King Messiah," says this rabbi, "is composed both of humanity and di- vinity; for Messiah has two filiations, one par- taking of divinity, by virtue whereof he is the Son of God: the other filiation as of the nature of humanity, and by virtue of this ho will be the son of the prophetess. The Messiah consists of two substances, each different from the other. One is divine, the other human. But these two Bubstances,in themselves distinct, become united in the Messiah. ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 51 The prophets and rabbins who lived before the advent of Christ explicitly declared that the Mes- siah was to be both God and man; and it was only HI consequence of your stubborn resolution to remain Jews, that you denied Christ to bo the M^^siah, and resolved to look out for another of a character different from what your prophets and rabbins had previously laid down. From all this, It becomes evident that the coming of the Messiah is an impossibility. The Scriptures can- not err. nor can your rabbins, men enlightened by God (who before the advent of Christ declared these truths), be guilty of falsehood. Therefore Messiah cannot come as simply man; consequent- ly. the Messiah whom you so anxiously expect is impossible, because the essential attributes are wanting in him which God revealed the Messiah should possess. For these reasons your redemp- tion cannot take place, seeing that the Messiah IS impossible, who, according to your expecta- tions, 18 to redeem you. Thus your tears are fruitless, for your hopes do not rest upon one who can put an end to your captivity. Thus it is that you find yourselves, and must remain till the end of the world, in the condition in which we now see you (which is exactly such as your Isaiah prophesied) without there being any one to re- deem or ransom yon.-^<^Ipse autempopulus direp^ tusy et vastatus, laqueus juvenum omnes, et in domi- bus carcerum absconditi sunt; facti sunt in rapinam 52 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, li » nec qui est eruat; in direptionenij nee est qui dicat: Bedder XLIII. Impossible as it is, that he whom you expect can be the Messiah, for want of the essential at- tributes which were to belong to him, the event is rendered equally so by the period in which the true Messiah was to appear; for that period is expired and can never recur. The time for the coming of the Messiah was accomplished and ful- filled when Christ came; and any farther fulfil- ment is obviously impossible. Unhappy people, whose hopes, not only the nature of the object, but the time appointed for its fulfilment, alike conspire to defeat. XLIY. To convince you of this truth, satisfactory proof may be adduced from the prophecy of Ja- cob, in Genesis, chap, xlix., when, desirous to point out to his sons the time of the advent of the Messiah, he tells them that the time of his coming would be when the sceptre should fjiil in your nation. Now in fact it did fail when Christ came, for Ilerod the Ascalonite held the sceptre. Supposing that you should now or hereafter, bo told by some sinful or ignorant Jew, that this text is not a convincing argument, for that long before the advent of Christ, the sceptre had failed in Jeconiah: this can only be said by one totally ignorant of sacred history; for after Jeconiah, ARCHBISHOP OF CRANOANOR. 53 Josias reigned; and although after this prince, the title ot king was lost to the nation until the time of Herod, still the government of the Jews was preserved with equal authority in the per- sons of their princes, as is most clearly set forth n the Scriptures. To prove still farther this ar- tide, the prophecy of Daniel in chap. ix. gives evident demonstration that his weeks, however you may attempt to dispute the computation, are already accomplished. There is scarcely a sermon on the same subject, in which these two texts are not brought under discussion; but in order that you may not allege that we Catho- ics are so deficient in proofs for your conviction that we are obliged to make the same arL^iments serve many times, I will not allow myself to dwell on the above texts, but nhall be enabled by others of equal evidence, to show you the futilf- ty of your hopes, and to convince you that the t^ne has past which you are expecting, under the belie that the Messiah has not yet come, but is still to appear. ' The prophet Daniel, chap, ii., relates .Vebu- chadnezzar's dream, wherein he saw a statue of which the head was of gold, the arms of silver Its belly of brass, its feet of iron and clay He also saw a small stone thrown from a hill, which striking the feet of the statue, reduced it to now' der. The head of the statue represented the r *i 54 SERMON OF JU8TINIAN0, empire of the Chaldeans; the arms, that of the Meclesand Persians; the belly, that of the Greeks; and the feet, that of the Romans. Such is the in- terpretation given by your prophets and rabbins. The last named empire, namely, the Roman, (con- tinues Daniel, chap. ii. 3,) will be mixed, one part being iron, and the other part clay. On this ac- count, although the clay may mingle with the iron, the two parts can never unite; for, how- ever closely mixed up, they will not adhere to each other, inasmuch as the clay will not amal- gamate with the iron, nor tlie iron with the clay, ^^Commiscebuntur sed non adharebiuit sihi." And this was verified; for the Roman empire, which was typified by the iron, and the clay, which was the kingdom of the Jews (says your Rabbi Joao Baptista Deste, who, after recognising the error of your belief, turned Catholic), although mixed, did not unite; for the same power was not pos- sessed by the clay, which was your kingdom, as by the iron, which was that of the Romans. A like exposition has been given by your Rabbi Fabiano de Tioghi (who also became converted to Christ after being expelled from the 83'na- gogue), in his book named DUdogo de la Fede. Thus, the prophet says that these two powers should be intermingled {Commihcehuntuf), but should not be united (sed non adhcerebunt sibi). Allowing that the Jews and the Romans confede- rated together as friends, they ever preserved a -\ ARCUBISnop OF CRANGANOB. 55 separate government; for, until the reign of He- he zr. irT""'''' '' •''"^^'» ''^' held b; tno Jt^vs. The Eomans became your allies in ler^ttti'rr :;::"/ '-' '- ^•'^"■^- >•- ♦oKi- 1 , . ^^^'^^nt'c; for among you was p« tabhshed the worship of the true Go^d but Imont the Komans a blind idolatry ThrL rZ^^ certain and admit of no doub^^r Xte 1 1^ in the Book of Maccabees, where we are inform ed of the confederacy you made with the BomanT while you still continued to maintain the obser' vnnces of your law, and the governmen of X kingdom, until the friendship between yoIZ coming relaxed, the Eomans sent Herod to 1 vern you, in company with others in their conT dence; and subsequently wishing to make an end of you, sent to destroy your city XLVI. At the time that the iron of the Roman empire ^as mingled with the clay of the kingdom of'^^^hl Jews, a small stone, says the prophej destroyed the iron and the day ; and in the!r pi;ce a W dom arose that should never be destroyed S surrendered to any other power, for its dominion was to be throughout the world,'and its ru We^ 1 «r>r' '" ^"''"'■'' "" '^'^^--'^y pan " it> In dtebus regnorum illorum suscitabit Deus D' S6 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, cceli rcgmm quod in cdernum non dissipahitur, et alteripopido non traddur. Cominuet autem et con- sumet universa regna hcec, et ipsum stabit in (ntcr- numr This is the proi)hecy trom which we col- lect, that the empires of the Chaldeans, Persians, and Greeks being destroyed, but the Koman em- pire still existing (that is to say, the iron) min- gled with the kingdom of the Jews (that is the clay), another kingdom or empire was to arise that should destroy both these powers; and that the empire which should succeed the two so de- stroyed, was to hold perpetual dominion, unaf- fected by time, and should never pass into other hands, since the stone that destroyed the several empires, in order to establish the one that was to arise from their ruins, would increase to such an extent that its bulk would fill the whole earth. « Consumet universa regna h(^c, et ipsum stabit in (Bternum ; secundum quod vidisti, quod de rnonte abscissus est lapis sine manibus, et comminuet tes- tam etferrum, et ats et argentum et aurewm." XLVII. That this prophecy of Daniel treats of the Mes- siah, is a settled point among your rabbins : so it is acknowledged in the book Midrash Tehilim, ^vhich is a commentary on the Psalms, in the ex- position of Psalm xvii. 44, 45. " Quando Messias veniet, non erunt dicentes canticum, donee cadat co- ram ipso habens, digitos, id est.regnum Eomanorum de quo dictum est Daniel secundo; et digitus ex parte ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 67 ferrei, et ex parte teste, ex parte regnum solidum et €x parte frivolum. In diebus regnorum illorum sta* tuet Deus cceli regnum quod in ceternum. Iste est rex Messias stent dictum est in Bereshith Eabba." The same we read in Bereshith liabbd, in the commentary on Gen. xlii. 'eared? The Eoman em- pire mixed with yours is passed away, and not a vestige of your kingdom remains. The kingdom that was to succeed these two powers has been es^iblished for a long period of years, and has diffused itself throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and America. It follows then that the time which the prophet assigned for the eomino- of tho Messiah is past: and being past cannot be expect- ed back again. Thus your expectations are in direct variance with the period assigned for that event. XLIX. There exists only one difficulty in this expla- nation; but this difficulty arises from the scanty knowledge you have of the Scriptures. By this prophecy we learn, that the Messiah, when he should come, was to found his own kingdom by de- stroying the kingdom of the Jews and the Eo- man empire. But the latter still subsists, and IS not destroyed; consequently it would seem as if the period for tho advent of the Messiah had not yet arriv<.d. This argument proceeded from the inflinious Ilenriques, called Miguel Henriques among us while he pretended to be a Catholic, and Michael Ilenriques among you, after he de^ clared himself a Jew, and as such suffered pun- kshment in this city on the eleventh of May, 1682. That such an opinion has become current amongst 60 SERMON or JUSTINIANO, you is the fault of your Toluntary blindness, for you voluntarily adopt a false interpretation of the sacred text. The Messiah was not to destroy the Roman empire in a physical sense; for, had the prophet spoken of such a kind of destruction, it is very evident he would have committed a great absurdity in affirming that a small stone, and which fell without hands from a mountain, was to annihilate a power whose dominion ex- tended throughout the world, and that the same Btone should afterwards itself grow into a moun- tain to fill the whole earth. The prophet then spoke of a spiritual destruction, and the annihi- lation of the religion and idolatry which the Eo- mans practised. With the advent of Christ, idol- atry ceased in all the countries into which the Ro- mans had carried their religious worship; and thus the religion of the Romans was extinguish- ed throughout the world, so that, on Christ's coming, their empire was spiritually destroyed. I will now proceed with additional arguments in evidence of this truth. L. The Messiah was to destroy the Roman em- pire, as we learn from the prophecy, in order to found his own. But the empire of the Messiah was to be spiritual; therefore the destruction which was to precede it must be so too. I will prove the major of this syllogism, which alono requires proof. Tho kingdom of the Messiah ARcnBisnop OP crangakor. 61 according to the prophet, was to be everlasting, ''Stabit in ceternumJ' It was never to end, for it was never to be destroyed, "7/i (vfernum non dissi^ pabitiiT." It was not to descend to others, ''Alteri non iradeturr l^o temporal or material object can be prevented from descending to others, or fail to come to an end. The kingdom of the Messiah, which was to be eternal and perpetual (for it was never to devolve ui^on others), could not mean a temporal king- dom. Consequently it must have been a spirit- ual destruction of the Roman empire which was to be effected by the Messiah, since the kingdom of the Messiah that was to follow this destruction was spiritual. The fact is, that the spiritual do- minion of the Roman empire absolutely ceased on the advent of Christ; for the idolatry of the Roman empire terminated throughout the world on his coming. Thus Sophonias prophesied. Sophon. chapter XX. V. 17. ''Horribilis Dominus et attenuabit om7ies deos fence," This is also admitted in your Tal- mud, in the book Zohar. Rabbi Moses of Egypt contends for the same thing, affirming that Je- sus of 2^azereth was a good man, because he put an end to idolatry throughout the world: ''Jesus JSTazarenus fuit vir bonus, et destruxit idolorum ado- rationem." Therefore, if, according to your rab- bins, your Talmud, and your prophet Sophonias, this was the kind of destruction that the Mes- G* 62 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, siah was to eifect when ho came, and which the true Messiah, Jesns Christ, actually did effect: it follows that the destruction of the Eoman em- pire, predicted by Daniel, was of a similar cha- racter, and must have therefore been intended in a spiritual sense. LI. In order more thoroughly to convince you, I will treat all the evidence in the very way that you have adopted as most favorable to your own erroneous views, and will be even more liberal than your commentators who have treated upon this passage. I am willing to grant that the Messiah was to bring a temporal destruction on the Koman empire, and will show you as clearly as the light at noon-day that this tem- poral destruction has already come to pass; for, after so many victories gained by the Turks, and the repeated triumphs of its enemies, how can it bo asserted of this empire that it still flourish- es? The Eoman empire, as long as it endured, held dominion throughout the world, subjected kingdoms, exacted obedience from princes, and exercised universal jurisdiction. Kothing of this any longer exists, as you must yourselves allow. This is sufficient to show that the Eoman empire is already, even in a material sense, destroyed. This government, to which in former days the "whole world was tributary, now possesses so small a revenue, that deducting what arises from ARCHBISnOP OF CRANGANOR. 63 conquest or inheritance, which is the appanage of the reigning imperial house (not of the empire), that which remains is not sufficient for the main- tenance of the emperor, I will not say with the dignity due to his rank, but even as a private no- bleman; for if they were at this day to elect an emperor who happened not to possess property of his own, he would be unable to maintain him- self with all the revenue the empire could furnish. This is an evident truth, and shows that the temporal dominion of the Eoman empire is of- fectually destroyed. How then can you hope that the Messiah is still to come when this fact proves that he has already been? It can only be from your reluctance to relinquish your vi- sionary hopes, that you employ these futile argu- ments, and because you have no better reply at your command, but are still at all hazard deter- mined to remain Jews; it would cost you less trouble to renounce the authority of your pro- phots, than to have recourse to these miserable evasions. However, if you are indifferent to the voice of your prophets, you will perhaps attend to what your rabbins affirm; for I wish to show you by the doctrines of your own teachers, that the advent of the Messiah is an event not still to be expected, but one already past. LII. Consult your Talmud, Treatises Sahat and San^ hedrin, and there you will find that Rabbi Tan- \¥' u SERMON OF JL'STINIANO, I buma asks the reason why tlio Hebrew word Lcmarbe is used by the prophet Isaiah, chapter ix., to express ^^midtipUcandxun ejus imperium," and why the final D (Mem) is placed in the mid- dle of the Lemarbej when it is contrary to usage to put such letter in the middle of any other He- brew word. No one has yet been found who could solve this question; and accordingly it is said in your Talmud, that he heard a voice from heaven answering him thus, Eazi-liy Razi-li, which Hebrew words translated into Latin mean ^^Secretum meim mihi;'* '^Secretum meum mihi;" or. My secret is my own; My secret is my own. It is assented to by many of your teachers that from the time of Isai- ah's prophecy in chapter ix., until the advent of the Messiah, a period of six hundred years was to elapse. Now let us see how many years have really elapsed since that prophecy down to the present time, and when these six hundred years were, or will be, fully completed, in order that we may discover whether your 3Iessiah has al- ready come, or is still to come, as calculated by your rabbins. The better to convince you, I will follow no other chronology than that adopt- ed by them. LIII. The date of this prophecy was in the fourth year of King Ahaz, reckoning from which time down to the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, ac- cording to the computation of your Babbi Salo- ARCHBISnOP OF CRANGANOR. 65 mon, one hundred and fifty years had elapsed. In that year, the first temple was burnt, and you were carried captive into Babylon. From the destruction of the first temple to the destruction of the second, by the account of that same rabbi, four hundred and ninety years had passed, which number added to one hundred and fifty, makes six hundred and forty one years. From this we must deduct the fort3'-oiie years since the death of Christ. Consequently, agreeably to the compu- tation of this rabbi, the year in which Christ died completed the six hundred years elapsed since the prophecy of Isaiah; and this was the period in which the Messiah was to come. It is now one thousand six hundred and thirty-two years since the time when Titus destro^^ed your city. Between that period and the fourth year of Ahaz six hundred years intervene, so that from the prophecy until the present day we may reckon two thousand two hundred and thirty-two years; de- duct the six hundred, and the advent of the Mes- ,siah, conformably to your Talmud, should have taken place one thousand six hundred and thirty- two years ago. And thus, although one thou- sand six hundred and thirty-two years, by your own computation, must have taken place since bis advent, you still go on expecting him to come. Moreover, you do this in open contradiction to your Talmud, which no one can venture to op- pose without incurring the penalty of death; ft' ft- 1^ .' I 66 SERMON OF JUSTINIAXO, such being the punishment awarded by that book, to those who deny any part of its contents. LIY. I invite you to consult the Talmud, book San- hedriii Guazit, chapter Col hrad, and you will there see the period which your rabbins cabalis- tically assign for the advent of the Messiah. The Jews have two and twenty letters, by which they reckon their luimbers. When they are placed in a manner that docs not make sense, like our ABC, they stand for numerals. The first letter k (Aleph), corresponding to our A, means the number One. The second 3 (Beth), means Two. The third j (Ghimel), Three; and so forth to "• (Yod), which means Ten. The next letter 2 (Caph), means Twenty ; and so on increas- ing by tens to p (Koph), which is One Hundred; 1 (Eesch) means Two Hundred; vf (Shin) Three Hundred; and r» (Tauv), the last letter, stands for Four Hundred. The Hebrews make use of all these letters, not only in common writing, but in expressing numbers in arithmetic and in all » computations relating to the Messiah. They be- gin with taking the first and last letters, Aleph and Tauv; and the intermediate ones between Aleph and Mem joined to these three make in all six hundred and five, so that the final or closed D, as we have already stated, contains within it- self the secret of the Messiah's advent, indicating as it does the six hundred years corresponding I ARCHBISnOP OF CRANGANOR. 67 to that event. These have already elapsed; and consequently the Messiah has already appeared. LY. Eabbi Moses] Ben Maimon, in his celebrated epistle to the rabbins of Africa, states, that by an ancient tradition of the Hebrews, the Messiah was to appear in the year^ of the world four thousand four hundred and seventy-four. "We are now, according to your computation, in the year five thousand four hundred and sixty-five from the creation of the world, so that if the Messiah was to apjwar in four thousand four hundred and seventy four, it mu&t be nine hun- dred and ninety-one years since he came, and con- sequently you are expecting him all this time after he has already been. LYI. In the Talmud, chapter i7b?e/i, in the Sanhedrin Guazity as well as in Sedar Holanij we find it writ- ten, that the world is to endure only six thousand years: '' Jlachma mundihujus annoru?n series mille et non plurum persistere debet." So also affirm your rabbins, according to ancient tradition, originat- ing with the disciples of Elijah. The first two thousand years with the law of nature and with- out a written law; the second two thousand years with the law of Moses; and the last two thousand years with the law of the Messiah. The two thou- sand years under natural law have long since pass- , / 08 SERMON OP JtJSTINlANO, ed away ; the two thousand years under the wrl t ten law are also passed; consequeutly the two thou- sand under the law of tlie Messiah alone are wanting. According to the computation adopt- ed by your people in calcuUiting the age of the world (which puts us in the year five thousand four hundred and sixty-five from the creation of the world), we are now in the final two thousand that belong to the Messiah, out of which five hundred and thirty-five have already expired. Consequently, your own reckoning shows that you are expecting One who came five hundred and thirty-five years ago. LYII. Eabbi Elijah son of Rabbi Judas, a Talmudist of the highest authority with you, writes thus: <^jVo/i minus octoginta quinquejubiUva mundus stabit, et in ultimo veniet Messias," The world then is to exist during eighty-five jubilees; and in the last the Messiah is to appear. Your Eabbi Salomon, in explaining these eighty-five jubilees of the world's duration, says, according to Scripture, that each jubilee consists of fifty years, and the whole together amount to four thousand two hundred and fifty: ^'Octaginta jubil(Ea faciunt «n- nos quatuor mille ducentos et quinquaginta annos." By this computation the world is to exist four thousand two hundred and fifty years, and in the last jubilee, that is, in the last fifty years, the Mes- siah was to come. It is evident, therefore, that the ARCHBISHOP OP CRANGANOR. 69 Messiah came one thousand two hundred and fif- teen years ago; for that is thenumber of years that has elapsed from the year four thousand two hun- dred and fifty to the present time. Then how can you expect a Messiah, who, by your own reckon- mg, must have appeared so long since v He was to come during the last jubilee, when the world should have existed four thousand two hundred years, and be about entering the last fifty, which were to complete the period of four thousand two hundred and fifty years. Being then at present in the year five thousand four hundred and sixty-five, can you suppose the time for the Messiah's coming not yet arrived? If you reflect on the force of this argument, you will doubtless take the advice of your Eabbi Samuel, who, convinced by this reasoning, renounced your creed and acknowledged Jesus Christ. ''Stupeo, ac credo Jesum verum Dei Filium exte- tisse Messiam, et jam venisse; revolvendo Scripta prophetarum, manifeste intelUgo Christum esse Dei Filium nobis in terram missum ad redemptionem nostram.^l am amazed at this," said the Eabbi, "and believe that Jesus, the true Son of God, was the Messiah, and has already come. For, revolv- ing in my mind all that the prophets have said I clearly understand that Christ is the Son of God' who was sent into the world to redeem us." This Eabbi acknowledged the truth by renouncing his former belief, and you would do well to follow H 70 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, his example. Eabbi Anima Yoluntas, or Eabbi Moses of Egypt, wl\o is the same person, also ac- knowledgcd this truth, as we may infer from .Sanhedrin Guazit, in IMek; for the Jews inquir- ing of him the time of the Messiah's coming, ho (reflecting on the procrastination of his own and your expectations of this event) answered them as follows: " Vanum est atque inane a Judaicis J/es- siam expectariy sed sola redemptio consistit in imni- tentid.— It is perfectly in vain," says this Rabbi, "for the Jews to expect the Messiah; for at this time it is only by repentance that they can ob- tain redemption." Undeceive yourselves, therefore, my brethren, as your rabbins have already done. Undeceive yourselves, and admit that your hopes are fiiUa- cious, and that the advent of the Messiah is al- ready passed, and having passed cannot come again; but if you are not satisfied by this consi- deration which was sufficient to satisfy your rab- bins, I would ask you in conclusion what reply you can make to the following question? LYIII. Do you know how many Messiahs have ap- peared in the world whom you have received with- out raising any difficulty or dispute ? If not, as pro- bably is the case, I will enumerate all that have come to my knowledge. Before the birth of Christ, Theudas declared himself to be the true Messiah. The Jews received him publicly; and ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 71 » four hundred Jews assembled in Jerusalem, who, being persuaded that he could conduct them over the Eiver Jordan dryshod, followed him with all that belonged to them. This being made known to the Roman garrison who commanded the city, they went out and destroyed him and his fol- lowers, and re-entered Jerusalem carrying the head of Theudas in triumph. So relates your his- torian Josephus. This was the first ^Messiah whom you received without any difficulty or con- troversy, and having acknowledged him as such, you paid with your lives the forfeit of your cre- dulity. LIX. About the time of the birth of Christ, there came another Messiah, Judas Galileo, who pre- vailed on you not to pay tribute to Caesar, when he had ordered a general impost to bo collected throughout the world. The whole Jewish peo- ple received him with transport, butyou and Judas your Messiah experienced the same fate as Theu- das. After that again, in the time of Felix the Proconsul of Judea, came a third Messiah, named Egipcio, who was received by you with equal de- light, and having instilled into your minds the idea of ridding Jerusalem of the yoke of the Ro- mans, with four thousand men sought to obtain possession of the city, but being opposed by Fe- lix, he and his followers met the same end as the two former Messiahs. Some short time after this, •11,. ' 7 72 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, w came two new pretenders, named John and Si- mon, who found equally ready acceptance with you as the rest, and led you to the same disas- trous consequences. After the death of Christ, a sixth Messiah appeared, named Barcosbas, or as some called him, Bencosbas, or as others will have it Barchossiba, who gained over the most enlightened man the Jews possessed at that pe- riod (namely, Eabbi Akiba, as we learn from the Talmud), and succeeded in inducing you to rebel against the Romans; which resulted in your de- struction by Titus and Vespasian. Forty-eight years after this event, a seventh pretender ap- peared, named Yentozora, whom some errone- ously supposed to be the same as Barchossiba. Under his persuasion, having fortified yourselves against the Romans in Bithera or Bither, your country was again ravaged by Adrian, who brought destruction upon you and your pretend- ed jyiessiah. LX. In the course of time came an eighth Messiah, named Mahir, who was received by you with your usual alacrity, and caused you to pay dearly for your acceptance of him. The ninth Messiah appeared in Sicily, and made you believe that he was to lead you like Moses through the sea; and having obtained credit with you, he and all who followed him found their grave in the waters. In the year sixteen hundred and sixty-six came th© ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 73 tenth Messiah, named Sabbati Essevi, who with the greater part of his followers was condemned to death by the Turks at Constantinople. And that this country might not prove an exception to your notorious credulity, there came a Jew from India, known in our history by the name of the Jew of Zapato, who told you that he was the Messiah, and that having announced himself pub- licly to the Jews on the Euphrates as such, he had come to you to declare the good tidino-3, whereupon you eagerly ran to receive him, Ex- pecting through his means to gain possession of the Indies; the matter, however, ended in his be- ing quickly laid hold of and imprisoned by the Holy Inquisition. Josephus mentions three Messiahs more, Judas Gaulonitis, Judas son of Ezcchias, and Athronges, a shepherd, all of whom met the same flitc'^as those who went before them. LXI. Here we have fourteen Messiahs publicly re- ceived by you as such. JS^ow tell me, I entreat, when you acknowledged each of these as the Messiah, had the time arrived for his coming or had it not ? If not, how could you receive these as such before the time appointed ? If the time had arrived, and on that ground you received them, how can you affirm that the time of the Messiah's coming is still distant ? How can you maintain that the time was come when all others H* r / n 1 , 1 74 SERMON OP jrSTINIANO, might be Messiahs; bat that for Christ alone the time was not yet come when he might be tho Messiah ? "\Yhat answer can you make to this demonstra- tion ? what else but simply to acknowledge that you are convinced, for such a demonstration pre- cludes any other reply : cither you must confess your error, and admit that, on the score of time, the advent of your Messiah is impossible, or to- tally shut your eyes to reason, from an obstinate determination to remain Jews. Cease to act thus, my brethren ; for if such be your resolution, no greater misfortune can bcfiiU you : your captivi- ty will still endure, your exile be prolonged, and your oppression become more stringent every day; for a Messiah can never come to relievo you, seeing that the time for that is already gone by, consequently there can be no end to the mis- fortunes with which your prophets have menaced you : "7;)S6 autem populus direptus et vastatus; la- queiis juvenum omneSy et in domibus carcennn ah- sconditi su7it ; facti sunt in rapinam, nee est qui eruatj in direptioncnij nee est qui dicatj BeddeJ' LXII. We are now arrived (slowly, it is true, but our progress would have been still slower, had I ad- vanced all the proofs which I had prepared for this sermon), — we are now, I say, arrived at the third part of our demonstration, in which I have to prove to you that the Messiah, the object of ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 75 your fervent aspirations, and whom your obsti- nacy has continued to expect for so many years, is impossible by reason of those signs that were to belong to him, all of which have been already accomplished in Christ, and having been so ac- complished, do not admit of being fulfilled a se- concl time. There was to be only one Messiah : that is acknowledged by all your ancient Rab- bins; and I have not time to dwell on this point, which it is of the less consequence to do, as it is not called in question by any of your modern teachers. The Messiah was to be one person; but, if at different periods the same signs have been fulfilled in two persons that God gave for one only, the Messiah must necessarily be two, for there could be no better reason that the Mes- siah should be one rather than the other. This cannot be the case; for God promised the world only one Messiah : besides, if at different times we perceive altogether the same signs in two Messiahs, as belong to one only, God has deceiv- ed us in having accomplished in two those signs which were proper only to one. It is impossible, as our natural reason suggests, that God should deceive us : consequently, it is impossible that at different times the very same signs should be realized in two persons, because one of these two would have been the true Messiah and the other false. But since the signs would have been found in both, which could properly belong to one alone '^i i4l ^« lit! 70 SERMON OP JUSTINIANO, the other would be, and would not bo the Mes- siah, lie would bo the Messiah, because mani- festing the signs prophesied; and he would not be, because two Messiahs wore impossible. More- over, if there were two Messiahs at different times accompanied by the same signs, a man could not but be held guiltless who should worship either of the two, although that one should chanco to be the false Messiah, the very same signs being apparent in both, and there being no reason in favor of the one above the other. The Messiah, whom God commanded us to worship as his Son, is one; and to no other Mes- siah but him is similar worship due. This is ex- pressly stated in the sacred text, according to the original Hebrew: ^^Oscxilaminij^ or ^^ adorate Filium ejus, ne forte irascatur Filius tile, et omnino pereat qui illius viam non sequitur." And where would be the justice of God promising only one Messiah with certain infallible signs, should lie confer these very signs on two different persons? This argument proves most conclusively that the Messiah whom the Jews expect can never appear, and annihilates the grounds upon which their hopes are founded, seeing that the signs, that God revealed should accompany the Messiah, be- gan to be realized one thousand seven hundred and five years ago in the person of Jesus of Na- zareth, and it is now one thousand six hundred and thirty-two years since they were fully ac- ^Mi ARCHBISnOP OP CRANGANOR. 77 complished, such being the number of years since your city was taken and destroyed under Titus. LXIII. To complete this demonstration, I would in- quire whether you expect your Messiah to come with the signs described by your Scriptures and prophets, or with others unknown to us and yourselves ? You surely will not say that you expect any others besides those revealed from God; consequently, he must come with the signs we collect from Scripture. All these, without one single discrepancy, have been fulfilled in Christ ; therefore in no one but Christ can they again be fulfilled. Now let us examine, not all the signs, for that is impossible in a single sermon, but only the principal ones which God revealed should be manifested in the Messiah. Lxiy. One of the signs of the Messiah, God says by the prophet Isaiah, chapter viii., was, that when the Messiah should come into the world, the ruin of the Jews and the destruction of their city should follow: ^^Et erit vobis in sanctificationem, in lapidem autem offensionis et in petram scandali dua- bus domibus Israel; in laqueuniy et in ruinam habi- tantibus in Jerusalem.'' In the Chaldean para- phrase (or) the Targura of Jonathan, we read : *^Et erit vobis Messias in scandalum duabus domi- bus Israel" If you deny that this sign belonged 78 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, to the Messiah, or that the prophet spoke with reference to him, you contradict the Targum and the Talmud; for the commentary upon this pas- saoje in the Treatises Sanhcdrlti and Yalcuty evi- dently assumes that the Messiah is the person alluded to: "iVb/i vcnietfilius David qiiousque non consumentur duce domus patrum Israclj siciit scrip- turn est in Isaiah^ (chapter viii.)" The same is af- firmed by your llabbi Salomon in his exposition of Micah, chapter v., ^^Iste dominator est Jlessias filius Davidy de quo scriptum est: Et erit in petrmn scandcUi." Two signs, says the prophet, shall witness to the Messiah. lie is to be a stumbling- block to the Jews, and the Jews are to be ruined in their dominion and city on his advent. This being granted, I call upon you to declare whe- ther these signs were or were not fulfilled in Christ? If they were not, why were you so greatly offended in Christ, that as the cause of your offence you persecuted and crucified him? Why do you continue, at this day to be offended in him, so that you cannot without offence bear to hear him named ? If he did not satisfy the predictions, how is it that your city is destroyed? If he did verify them, how is it that you hope for the Messiah, and seek for his coming, that you may crucify him? You have already done so, and would you go on, from day to day, murder- ing your Messiah ? Why do you seek or hope for him ? Is it that your kingdom may be lost ? ARCHBISHOP OP CRANGANOR. 79 It is already lost. Is it that he may be the de- struction of your city? The Eomans have already destroyed it. Is it that he may deprive you of the government of Judea ? It is already taken from you. Is it that he may be an offence and stumbling-block to you? Already you have stum- bled over and been offended in him, since you put him to death as a criminal, though he was innocence itself. Let us enlarge upon this point: and tell me if the Messiah, whom you expect, is to be an offence and stumbling-block to you; and will he bring ruin and destruction upon you ? You will all answer, Xo; for the Messiah is to be the object of your adoration, submission, and re- spect. Your Messiah is to restore you to free- dom, reinstate you in your city, conduct you in safety to Judea, and give you once more the do- minion of Palestine. Well, is such to be the Messiah you are looking for ? If so, he will be a false Messiah ; for the true Messiah was to put an end to your dominion, destroy Judea, ruin your city, and be an opprobrium to you, as your prophet and your rabbins agree in foretelling. — Now, your Messiah will not bring with him these tokens: and, consequently, Christ must be the true 3Iessiah ; and he whom you expect to come after Christ, must be a false Messiah. LXY. From Isaiah we pass to the text of Hosea, upon which we shall only bestow a cursory 80 SERMON OP JUSTINIANO, w I glance; for if we were to dwell upon it, it would be sufficient in itself for a whole sermon. The prophet Ilosca in chap. iii. gives us other signs whereby the Messiah might be known on his com- ing. "D/ps miiltus expectabity et ego expectabo vos^ When the Messiah comes, says the prophet, the Jews will be expecting him, and the Messiah will be expecting the Jews; and as the Jews were not to receive him, they should remain without aking, without a prince, without a sacrifice, and without an altar, ^'Sedebunt filli Israel^ sine rege, sine prin- cipej sine saerificio, et sine alfariJ' And after long remaining in this condition, they would acknow- ledge their error, and in the latter days worship the Messiah, whom they were not willing to ac- cept when he came. "-Ef post ha'c revertentur filii Israel ad Dominum Deum smun et ad David regem suum" You cannot avoid the force of the pro- phecy, by maintaining with some of your rabbins, that the passage docs not allude to the Messiah, but to David; for your own Targum, a sacred book with you, interprets the passage as relating to the Messiah, ^^Post hcec obedient Messiwjilio Da- vid.'^ And your rabbins acknowledge that the Messiah is understood in Scripture under the name of David, as we learn from Jledrash Jlishle, a Glos- sary on the Proverbs in chap. xix. and from the book called Zoharj in the exj^osition of chap. xix. of Leviticus. Moreover, independently of the doc- trine of your rabbins, it clashes both with reason ARCHBISHOP OF CRANOANOR. 81 and with Scripture, to suppose that the passage can be explained as relating to David. LXVL It clashes with Scripture, for it there appears that David died many years ago; and it clashes with reason, since it is evident that as David is dead he cannot expect you, nor can you expect him while the world exists. For it is clear that David after his death cannot return, and, conse- quently, you cannot expect him, nor he you, for the dead cannot expect the living. Thus it is proved the prophet did not speak of David. You have to expect him who was predicted, ^'JSxpecta* bis me." lie is also to expect you, ^^J^go expectd" bo vos." If he is to expect you, then he must have already come; for if he had not come you might have continued to expect him, but he could not have to expect you. Y^'ou cannot expect Da- vid, for he has already appeared; nor David ex- pect you, seeing that ho is dead: consequently this prophecy cannot be understood to allude to David. Moreover you are to seek out the per- son predicted as your God. ^'Qua^rent Dominum Deum suum." None of you are now looking for David, for he has appeared long since, nor do you acknowledge David to be God. Thus your exposition must be untrue. Besides, you were to deny the person predicted; but subsequently at the end of the world, to be converted to him, *^Fost hac revertentur.'^ You were to adore him VJ 82 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO; i m as your God, says tho Targum, ^^ Reverteniur ad cultum Dei sui." Thus be whom you were to deny, when he first came, was God. David you did not deny, at the time when he came; nor will you worship him as your God, at the end of the world, when he may come to life again. Therefore David cannot bo the person foretold by your prophet llosea. 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 Ba- bylon you had a priest named Joscdek, as we per- ceive in Daniel xiii.;* you had kings and princes, priests and sacrifices. All this is corroborated in Baruchf i. 10; you had sacrifices and priests, ^^Facite mannay ct offcrte pro peecato ad aram Bo- mini Dei Nostri.'* You had a king, namely, Joa- chim; 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. * The Hebrew canon has no such chapter, Daniel end- ing with chapter xii. f This book is also apocryphal. ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 83 I LXYIIl. Is this prophecy true? You cannot but ac- knowledge its authenticity, and that, consequent- ly, the Messiah has already come; for, otherwise, the Messiah could not be expecting you, ^'expec- taho 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, "Ke- vcrtentur-" you are to seek for him, ^^Qucerent Do- milium 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 arc since without prince, altar, sacrifice, priest, or king? seeing that you were to be re- duced to this state, in consequence of not accept- ing 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 tho negative, consequently in him, the signs of the true Messiah cannot be fulfilled, for the true Messiah when he came was to be re- jected by the Jews. Thus if the signs are inca- pable of being hereafter verified, it is because they have already been verified in Christ. Bat it is impossible that they can be so again; and, consequently, the Messiah whom you expect be- comes impossible. On the advent of yoi/r Messiah, 84 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, ^li'j! are you to lose king, sacrifice, and prince? This cannot be; for all these things are left to him to restore to yon. Thus, in your Messiah, this eigD 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 re- ject him? You have done this already. Is it that you may be left without king, prince, sacri- fice, altar, or priest? You have been in this state suflSciently long already; and if on his coming you remain so, the Messiah yon expect, as wo have fully shown, cannot be the true Messiah. From Ilosea we turn to Malachi to discover another sign of the true Messiah, which has al- ready been fulfilled, and therefore cannot occur again. Malachi i. 10, ^^Non est mihi voluntas in vo- bis. Mumts vestrum non suscipiam de manu vestra. Ah ortu enim soUs usque ad occasiim, magnum est iiomen meum in GenfibuSj et in omni loco sacrifica- hitur mihi ablatio munda." When the Messiah comes, God said through the prophet Malachi, the person of the Jews shall no longer be agree- able to me, nor will I desire to receive their sa- crifices ; for, from the rising of the sun to the o-oing down thereof, my name shall_, be great among the nations (that is among the Heathen), and in every place a pure sacrifice shall be offer- ed to me. This being certain, from prophecy, tell me, are not yourselves and your sacrifices ARCHBISHOP OP CRANGANOR. 85 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 sacri- fice 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 be- wail, with unavailing tears, that we gentiles are in possession of your heritage. All the world knows that there is no country on the globe, where the converted gentile does not adore the true God, and offer up sacrifice of the most pure Avorship 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 al- though 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 af- firms were to occur at the same time. First, that I* J. ' 86 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO ) God would reject and put an end to your sacri- fices. Secondly, that after this rejection, the gen- tiles throughout the world would offer sacrifice. You do not now offer sacrifices, as yourselves al- low, and, as you obstinately maintain, neither do wo; you must admit one of these two alterna- tives, 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 ac- knowledge the second. Besides, if we do not at the present day offer sacrifice, you place your- selves in a dilemma, as it would show that God now receives, nowhere throughout the world, cither sacrifice or adoration ; for you do not ren- der any, still less the Mahomedans. 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; consequentl}', the sign predicted has already oc- curred, and does not remain to be verified. To what purpose do you hope and seek for a Mes- siah? Is it to forfeit your right of primogeni- ture? 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 things to happen when your Messiah comes? — ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 87 Are you to be rejected ? Are you to lose 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 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 boon verified in Christ Jesus that the prophets gave for your direction in ascer- taining the true Messiah. You have brought your misery upon yourselves, by your refusal to accept the Messiah, and because, instead of wor- shipping 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 Eabbi Samuel, ^'Non paveo quod j>eccatum, jper quod sumus in hac captioitate, sed illud propter quod locutus est dominus per Amos; expavescOj quod iste Jesus sit ille Justus venditus pro argento." 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 chime- ?' i 88 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, ra : and any Messiah but Jesus of Nazareth is a dream and an absurdity; for Christ alone pos- sessed all the true qualifications that were pre- dicted of the Messiah, and it is impossible that any other person can be invested with the same. Be satisfied that any Messiah but Christ is im- possible; for Clirist having come, the time is past for the advent of any other. Understand, finall}', that any Messiah beyond the person of Christ is an impossibility, because all the tokens of the real Messiah have already been fulilled in him. If you will repent with all your heart, and sin- cerely admit tliis conviction, happy indeed will you be in renouncing your error; for, with a knowledge of the truth, you will abandon the shadows of the Sj'nagogue for the light of the church, the horrors of heresy for the beauty of faith. Take comfort; for, although chastisement may have placed you in the right road, it will, in the end, have been the instrument of opening your eyes; and you will find your God so merci- ful, that although, as Jews, you rejected him for your Father, on your repentance he will again receive you as his children, having redeemed you by his own precious blood. Prove yourselves, in the true sense of the word, good Jews; for if "Jew" means one who makes acknowledgment, you ought to acknowledge your errors, if you would be thought truly to remain Jews. The honor you have lost by coming under the sen- ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 89 tence of the Inquisition, and the property that has been confiscated on account of your heresy, you will recover, accompanied with great grief of heart, on account of its not being by misfor- tune that you have incurred so much suffering, but for your sins and offences against a God to whom you are so much indebted. LXXI. And you, unhappy man, who stand hero among these penitents, if you would obtain remission for your sins, open your eyes in time, that the fire in which your body is to be consumed ma}' not ex- tend, at the same time, to consume your soul. O beloved son of my heart, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, educated in the bosom of the Church, bathed in the holy waters of baptism, O that I could, with the best blood of my veins, cure you of your blindness; for, were that possi- ble, I would shed the last drop to remove j'our illusion, and rescue your soul from the power of the devil, who renders you thus obstinate. How bitterly do I grieve at your misery; and how deeply is my soul plunged in sorrow at behold- ing you in imminent peril of eternal condemna- tion ! Consider, my son, begotten in the gospel, born among Catholics,* and illuiiinated by tho *The preacher evidently alludes to some noted person, vhose name it is in vain to look for with the little inform* ation at our oommand. ri 90 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, light afforded you by so many learned men, con- sider how greatly you are deceived, and that if you have tiie misfortune to die in this condition, a consuming fire awaits your soul, to envelop it in flames to all eternity, after a temporal fire has already consumed your body. You are convicted of being a Jew from dii-ect evidence; and 3'ou have yourself confessed your guilt, thinking to diminish the crime by confession. Besides this, you have lapsed into the abominable error of Atheism. Now reconcile, if you can, these two things, of being at the same time an Atheist and a Jew. If at this day salvation could bo ob- tained by the Law of Moses, which it cannot, you are in the wretched condition of being out of the pale of salvation ; for you will die a here- tic to the very law you profess. You are a Sad- duccan Jew, as you have youi*self acknowledged. Are you ignorant, that even at the time when your law still existed, the opinions of the Saddu- cees were considered heretical, inasmuch as they denied the doctrine of the resurrection, and con- sequently the immortality of the soul? You are still in a worse state, for you do not only deny the immortality of the soul, but arc so blind as to deny having a soul. You affirm that there is no other happiness beyond this world — that life is the only true salvation — and that perdition is Dot in hell, for there is no such place, but death is the sole destruction. If you believe (however ARCnBIsnOP OF CRANGANOR. 91 erroneously) this to be the Axct, why do you seek to lose a life in which alone happiness consists in your opinion ? How can it be your pleasure to die, if death, in your judgment, is the only per- dition ? vSuffer 3'oursclf to be persuaded by one who ardently desires your salvation. Entreat the mercy of the tribunal of the Holy Office, ^vhich with so much compassion has waited two years, and has so patiently borne with your va- cillation, at one time repenting, at another time retracting, and finally settling down into the miserable dogma of Atheism. Confess your er- rors, not with the desire of preserving 3'our life, but with the simple view to the salvation of 3'our soul. But if your are determined to die in your present state, I summon you hence to the day of judgment, when both of us, having risen from the dead, shall appear in the presence of the true God. You will return to life as a Jew and a he- retic, in which state you die: I, on the other hand, hope for the divine mercy by returning to life as a Catholic, because, I trust through the divine goodness, I shall die in the law of Jesus Christ, in which alone salvation can be obtained. We both of us have to appear, at the resurrec- tion, in the presence of the Supreme judge; and you will then see that God may reprove me for the greatness of my sins, but will not for being false to my faith. He may reproach me for my defective observance thereof, but not for my want ;i 92 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO, of sincerity therein; unless God were unjust, which he is not. But as to you, he will not only judge you on account of your crimes, but will condemn you for the observance of the law in which you died. Imagine yourself in the pre- sence of God, free from any other sin than that of persevering in the law of Moses; and imagine a Christian in the same divine presence, free from any crime but the observance of the law of Christ. If God were to condemn the Chris- tian for the love of his law, and grant salvation to the Jew for a similar observance on his part, God would not act with justice, nor would it be reconcilable with those reasons which we Ca- tholics urge in proof of his justice. For in that case the Catholic might reason with God as fol- lows: "Upright Judge, I believe in Christ, be- cause he fulfilled all those signs that you reveal- ed by your prophets, that your Son should be invested with. I acted as you commanded me; and you now condemn me for so doing. Why will you condemn me for being obedient?" As- suredly, this statement will not admit of any contradiction. Consequently, it is impossible that God will condemn the Catholic for remaining a Christian. Now let us suppose a Jew, whom God con- demns for his observance of the law of Moses, attempting to argue with God against his judg- ment, lie would say: "O God, I believed in the 1 ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR, 9a God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; I observed the law you gave to Moses, then why condemn me ?" But then God might reply : " You speak untruly; for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob believed, and expected a future Messiah, who was to be my Son, and was to possess all those signs that I promised, whereby he might be known. This Son came into the world, and in him were appa- rent all the tokens revealed in the Scriptures. — You were so far from acknowledging or believ- ing him, that you crucified him. The law given to Moses was to come to an end with the advent of my Son, and he was to promulgate another, which was to spread throughout the whole world; and you saw with your own eyes the signs of the time in which this law was to be promulgated. (John XV. 22.) If my Son had not come into the world, and the prophecies had not been accom- plished, you might be excused, by saying you observed the law that I gave forever, and that you believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But now that every thing has been satis- factorily fulfilled, I am just in condemning you, and you are rebellious in remaining a Jew." My brother, however frightful this may be that I am now reciting to you, such will be indeed your lot on that day. Such is the mesh in which yoUj of your own choice, will be caught. This is the net that you are now weaving for all connected with J i i 94 SERMON OF JUSTINIANO; ARCHBISHOP OP CRANGANOR. 95 you, your children, your parents, your relatives, your friends, and your entire race, for such is the wretched lot foretold by your prophets. *^lpse autem popuhis direptuSy et vastatus; laqueus juve- num. omneSy et in domibxis carcerum ahsconditi sunt; facti sunt in rapinam, nee est qui eruat; in direp- tionenij nee est qui dicat: ReddeJ* LXXII. I have come to a conclusion with my proofs, and likewise with you, O unhappy people of Is- rael. O God, my Lord, who was crueitied by the Jews, as much for their salvation as for our good, Lord, soften their obdurate hearts; for there stands a heart truly obdurate among these wretched people. Though they took up stones from the road to kill you, now that you have suffered death, subdue the hardened hearts of the Jews who murdered you, and still refuse to love you; you bestowed sight on a blind man, who put a spear to your side, give eyes to this blind people who still desire to pierce you, and still point the spear to your heart. Sprinkle, O God of my soul, sprinkle anew water and blood from your compassionate heart over these wretched men : it may be they will repent, seeing that a heart offended by such repeated provocations still lavishes favors so little deserved by their repeated transgressions. You rent the veil of the temple in token that your death put an end to the Jewish Synagogue: rend the veil that has covered the Jewish heart for so many years, that with all their heart they may renounce their errors through the saving influence of your death. You have awaited with open arms the sons of Judea for seventeen hundred and five years, and the more eagerly you solicit them to come to you, the more ungratefully they turn away from you, and obstinately refuse to acknowledge you as their Messiah. I know how anxiously you desire to save them, that you died forever in dy- ing for them, and that they for murdering you are in danger of perishing eternally. Be mind- ful, O Lord God! through your compassionate nature, be mindful of these your sons, who, in fact, are of your own blood, and whom you redeem- ed at the price of so much suffering. They were so ignorant, that though you were their Father, they would not admit themselves to be your sons; but the ingratitude of children ever finds pardon in the loT^e of a parent. You called to them in kindness, but they made an ungrateful return for your favors. Seek now to win them to you by chastisement, however little chastise- ment has hitherto benefited them. Cause them to acknowledge, with perfect sincerity, that in their present miserable state they have no other remedy than to repent for the time they have H 96 SEBMON OF JUSTINIANO. I n lost in their false expectations, by bewailing their errors, abhorring their sins, abominating their superstition, and renouncing their contu- macy; so that, being regenerated by the waters of their penitent eyes, they may be born again your children, as already by baptism they have become. LAUS DEOl REPLY TO THE SERMON OF THE ARCHBIS^OP OF CRANGANOE, AT THE AUTO DA FE, SOLEMNIZED IN LISBON, SEPTEMBER 6, 1705. BY THE AUTHOR OF THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION, A POSTHUMOUS WORK PRINTED IN VILLA-FRANCA, BY CARLOS VERO. ' INTKODUCTIOK I OUGHT to inform the candid reader, that the reply to the sermon I am now about to publish, is the posthumous work of an eminent person known in the republic of letters by his excellent and judicious productions; and although his ad- vanced age and tormenting infirmities little dis- posed him to engage in controversy, yet, to com- ply with the wishes of some of his friends who were most anxious to see a refutation of this boasted sermon, he composed that which is here- to subjoined, and quoted the several articles of the sermon separately, in order to reply minute- ly to each. Ilis intention was not to attack the Christian religion, but to defend his own ; and to show that the calumny which the archbishop has promulgated against that most eminent and learned writer. Rabbi R. Solomon, of having cor- rupted the text of the holy Scriptures, should actually be ascribed to the archbishop himself, or to some Christian who preceded him. That the author has accomplished his object, he who will read and examine the sermon and the refu- tation without being blinded by prejudice or in- terest, cannot fail to acknowledge; and I am persuaded that any one capable of weighing the i ] ikH 1/ rf I 100 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OF reasoning of each party, >vill perceive an immense difference between the sermon and the reply; since all the reasoning the sermon presents is deduced from the erroneous conclusions and con- ceits of its author, from inaccurate quotations, allegory, and words wrested from their litera sense J while the reply is composed of real and true inferences, deduced from premises founded on clear and evident prophecies, explained in the literal sense, without being perverted from their natural meaning, or frittered away by typical interpretation, in order to make them suit a par- ticular purpose, as practised by the preacher m bis sermon. So much it has been considered necessary to state to the friendly reader; for most people de- sire to know something of an author as well as of his work. . There is nothing more useful to religion than free discussion. We ought closely to search and examine into the subject, with a view to estab- lish it on the most solid foundation; but whoever wishes to form a just opinion, must divest him- self of all the prejudices imbibed by education, and reflect that his opponent has a soul as well as himself, and is desirous to attain that supreme felicity, which is the aim of all true religion; he ou^rht to consider that there is no man in the wodd who, if he knew that there existed a true religion, which was not his own, but would aban- THE ARCHBISnOP OF CRANGANOR. 101 don his own and embrace the true one; for if bo did not, his obstinate opposition to his own good would render him unworthy of the title of Man. This being admitted, it follows, that if the mo- tive wdiich stimulated him to controversy, is to brinir over to what he believes to be the true re- ligion those who, for want of being rightly in- formed, have been kept away from it, he ought to avail himself of those means which best con- duce to the desired effect; he should adopt the most persuasive style, and confine himself to strict reasoning, solid arguments, to inferences correctly deduced, and to conclusions carefully drawn; he ought not to evince any partiality except for truth, but should acknowledge reason wherever he may meet it, and exhibit perfect sincerity and candor throughout; he ought to flee from subterfuge and fiction ; be most scru- pulous of what he ventures to assert, and honest in giving the correct sense of his quotations; ho ought not to offend by using ignominious terms, nor invent calumnies to uphold his doctrine, much less claim a victory founded on passages perverted from their literal meaning. It is in this manner that the discussion will be best con-* ducted, and the truth most easily elicited, which is the object we ought to seek. To act otherwise serves only to endanger the credit of the dispu- tant and the religion he advocates; for when w^e find that a man is unable to defend his creed 102 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OP i without offering offence to his opponent, and re- sorting to calumnies and falsehood, we are apt to attribute the defects of the pleader to the re- ligion itself, and naturally conclude, that since no other argument but abuse has been put for- ward, none other can be advanced j and the op- posite party, instead of becoming converted, only remains more firmly attached to his own faith. Ileliirion bcinor a matter that so vitally con- cerns every human being, on entering into po- lemical discussions, with the view of converting another person to our creed, no language unwor- thy of learned and rational men should be resort- ed to; otherwise, instead of following up the in- vestigation of the more essential principles in question, we should be occupied in resenting the insults offered, and in framing others in retalia- tion, by which means hatrj^d and ill-will arc en- gendered, instead of the amicable feelings that ought to prevail. I am of opinion that we ought to esteem and respect any person who attempts to convert us to his own religion, whatever that may be, which (according to his belief) will procure for us the • greatest and most exalted benefits that man can desire J and if he treats us with the courtesy con- sistent with the sincerity to which he lays claim, we ought to endeavor to answer him in the most courteous and charitable terms in our power; but, on the other hand, nothing forbids us to THE ARCHBISHOP OP CRANGANOR. 103 hold in contempt, and to regard as outcasts from the republic of letters, those who wilfully per- vert facts and disfiojure the truth to answer their own purposes. All the religions in the world admit of being classified under four denominations. The first, comprehending the greater part of the world, is made up of the various Pagan religions which suppose a multitude of gods, or no god at all; the next, less numerous than the Pagans, al- though more so than those which follow, is Ma- homedanism; the third is Christianity, embrac- ing fewer disciples than those above named, but more than the fourth, which is the least of all in number. This consists of those who profess the Jewish religion. As we have not much knowledge of the vari- ous Pagan creeds, it is unnecessary to take them into consideration ; the rest (namely, Mahome- dans. Christians, and Jews) agree in the opinion that there exists onl}^ One Sole Eternal Cause, that created, directs, and governs the world; moreover. Christians and Jews coincide in main- taining that none other but their respective reli- gions can be true. Now, the Jewish religion may be divided into two forms of faith : the one professed by tlie ma- jority of the Jews is the Law of Moses conjoined with rabbinical traditions; the other is that which is professed by the Caraites, who reject tradition. 104 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON Or It would be necessary, therefore, for a Christian disposed to become a convert, and to be convinc- ed of the truth of the Jewish religion, before professing either of the two creeds, to examine with every possible accuracy and diligence tho reasoning of both parties, in order to know m favor of which he should decide; since if he re- main uninformed of the arguments on which cither is founded, he will not be in a position to discover the truth j but, after acquiring a minute and extensive knowledge of the ground of per- suasion that prevails with them each to follow their respective opinions, he will then be master of the question, and competent to choose the side he deems best supported. I cannot conceive how any Jew can conscientiously be induced to be- come a convert to Christianity, without first ex- amining most rigidly all the various opinions that have been and still are entertained among the professors of that creed, as well as the rea- sons which are urged for and against them; for on this subject there exists so great a diversity of iudgments, that each party claims the victory for itself, and remains persuaded that it alone professes the true religion, and that all others are mere schismatics. What man is there so learned, so acute, and so thorough a theologian that he can presume to decide for one sect in particular, much less to fix his choice, without first well weighing and comparing together tha various opinions ? THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 105 This is a task which ought to be performed among Christians themselves; nor should any of them presume to decide on the subject, who had not first thoroughly examined into every sect of his religion, divested of the prejudice resulting from having been brought up in a different mode of belief. To convert the Jews, therefore, it would be requisite, in the first place, to call a general council of all the professors of Christian- ity, under whatever denomination they may be styled, not excepting the Unitarians; and when the general council shall have agreed which of all their various opinions ought to be adopted by common consent of all, uninfluenced by arti- fice, deceit, interest, or arbitrary power, it would then be proper to summon another council, to which the Jews might have free access and full liberty to deliver their opinions explicitly, with- out fear or reserve, on a subject involving tho salvation of all. The Christians should first prove that Christ was the promised Messiah from the Old Testa- ment, and from all the prophecies which speak literally of the true Messiah, without perversion or allegory. They must produce authority for as- serting that He was to be both God and Man. — They must prove from the Old Testament that God is One and Three; they must show clearly the obligation of the Jews to renounce the Law of Moses, and to embrace that of Christ, and 106 BEFXJTATION OP THE SfitlMON OF satisfy us by what authority this latter law "Was ordained; and after all this, the}' should patient- ly attend to the arguments which we might al- lege to the contrary. Each party should have full liberty of speech and reply, and be ready to acknowledge the truth, on whichever side and under whatever form and circumstances it might appear. This is the only way to bring all to acknow- ledge tho truth; but to produce that effect, it would be requisite that such a council should be open to the public without restriction, that it should be composed of men not holding any reli- gious appointment from either party, so that no one might be constrained to persist in his own particular creed for the sake of retaining office. It appears to me that it is only in this manner the truth can be elicited, and a decision come to on the question that has been agitated during seventeen hundred years, and which may sub- sist, God alone knows how much longer. But it is as great madness for the archbishop to believe that the Jews will yield their opinions under the influence of subtlety and allegory, as it would be for them to believe that he would yield his, so long as the church has any benefices to bestow. Let each man adhere to his own creed, and worship God with an upright and pure intention, and not depart from what has been taught him (provided he does not feel com- THE ARCHBISHOP OP CRANGANOR. 107 petent to decide for himself), and leave to God the care of his salvation. He, who is all-merci- ful, will accept his upright intentions, although his form of creed may not be the moat accepta- ble. Let theologians talk as they please, this is what I shall ever believe; for I can never be persuaded that our merciful Creator will with- hold Jlis grace even from an upright and virtu- ous Mahomedan, who observes his religion, be- cause he sincerely believes it to be the best man- ner in which he can worship God. ^ THE SERMON REFUTED. Paragraph II. — *^You are the persons ichose patience has never been exhausted by long protract- ed hope.** Righteous Heaven ! How groat must bo the force of that prejudice, which can presume to censure as a crime the practice of a virtue so truly heroic, and so well deserving the highest encomium. It is on account of this sublime hope, that the people of Israel are called a holy people; for nei- ther captivity, banishment, martyrdom, afflic- tion, or degradation has been sufficient to make them abandon the true faith; nor has the hope of future greatness or present prosperity proved an adequate incentive to make them renounce their sacred and imperishable religion; such is their constancy in truth and such the strength of their belief, that, preferring heavenly to all human considerations, they do not, and will not forsake God and His law. In a similar case, doubtless, the noble preacher and his followers (since he deems the patience and hope of the Jews so great an evil) would think it more becoming to sacrifice patience and hope, and turn away from one deity to another, and from one law to another, as they are wont REFUTATION OP THE SERMON. 109 to do with their saints, fixing their devotion upon those from whom they anticipate the most prompt return. But to show the archbishop how much God es- teems this virtue, and in what terms He extols it, let them attend to the words of the prophet Jeremiah ii. 2, where it is affirmed that he will not forget the patience with which the holy peo- ple followed him forty years in the wilderness: ^^Recordor tibi benignitatis adolescentice tuce, amoris sponsalium tuorum, te prosequitam esse me per de- sertum, per terram non satam.'* If the Divine Majesty was thus pleased with the dependence on His divine providence during the short term of fort}'^ years, how much more so must He be with their patience and endurance during so many centuries of captivity and exile? " You are those to whose minds the clearest evi- dence does not bring conviction!'* In proceeding to proofs, the force of this evi- dence will be examined. VI. — See the prophet Isaiah, chap. xlii. The preacher imagines that the prophecy al- luded to describes the calamities, extortions, and vexations the Jews were to suffer after the ad- vent of the Messiah. To justify this interpreta- tion he paraphrases the verse : ^^Ipse autem popii- lus direptus et vastatus/* etc. " They are a people despoiled and trampled under foot," &c., from 110 BEFUTATION OF THE SERMON OP which words he infers that the Jews have no right to look forward to a Messiah. IX. — "T/" the Jews place their hope of redemption in a future Messiah, and they are still expecting the Messiah, why does the prophet say that the Jews are not to have redemption f For the precise reason, that the Jews expect their salvation from a future Mes- siah, they must remain without relief; for a new Messiah will never come to the Jews, and as such a Messiah is impossible, so is the relief impossible that the Jews expect therefrom J' It must bo noticed that this prophecy consists of two parts; the first is quoted hy tiie preacher, the second he has taken care to omit. The first represents the troubles, misfortunes, and con- tumel3' that Israel suffers in its preirtance are dwelt upon and exa«rgerated. ^^^•-"" The Jews arc divided in opinion on the advent ofthe Messiah, some believe that he has not yet appeared, and are still ex))eclinposo a crime of such enormity, and a saciile^e so abominable as iidsityinij the sacred text; hesides, "We tind all the Hebrew manuscripts, both an- cient and modern, perketly in accordance with each other in every point: although written at various periods, and in remote regio is, indicative of inviolate and accurate tidelity Neither ought "we to presume (continues the same St. Augustin) that so numerous a people, who, in their captivi- ty, have no other property than the possession of the sacred volumes, would consent to falsify them to gratify the malevolence and rancor that they might entertain against any other nation or people: whence he concludes, that where we find a ditierence between the Hebrew text and the Greek version, most credit ought to be given to the Hebrew, as there is no difficulty in suppos- ing that the Greek interpreter may have com- mitted an error of translation. He termed it a ridiculous calumny, and that justly; it being so THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANQANOR. 123 considered and reputed by the whole people of Israel. Indeed, so scrupulous are they, that if they perceive in the Book of the Law (which is read each Sabbath day in the Synagogues) a single letter more or less than there ought to be, al- though merely explanatory, and not in the least alterin_3j the sense of the passage or of the words, that book is immediately laid aside and another substituted in its place. The rigid notions of the Jews go still farther in all that relates to the word of God; for if it should happen that the reader of the Pentateuch should, either through ignor- ance or carelessness, mispronounce an}^ word or accent, that might in any degree alter the mean- ing, he must repeat the whole of the verse, and, if not aware of his error, those who hear him must admonish bin), and make him repeat the verse correctly. This being the practice of the Synagogues throughout the nation, on discover- ing any trifling error, written or pronounced, what vvould they do if they knew or suspected that one of the most celebrated rabbins of Israel, as was R Solomon, had altered the text of Isa- iah? Moreover, if our excellent Rabbi Solomon interprets this prophecy as apjiertaining to Heze- kiah (which really and truly it does, as any one may see who looks into the Prophecies in order to understand them, and not to pervert them, as will be hereafter more tally shown), what neces- sity was there to alter or corrupt the text? For 124 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OF admitting it to bo as the preacher and the Vul- gate pretend, Nipn veyicare, and vocabitur, no conclusion can be drawn from this that will mili- tate against the rabbi's exposition; and he micrht leave the vocahitur without exposing himself to the censure of Jew or Christian. R. Solomon, then, iiaving interpreted the prr>phecy as relat- ing to Ilezekiah, and havino left the N^p^l va- yicrd and vocavit as he found it, it folloVs'that he was not the one who altered and falsified the text, but that this must have been done by St. Jerome, or some one antecedent to him, inasmuch as it appeared to then, that the proj)hecy could not otherwise be explained in the future tense- and by this wretched emen''t^">' niyx, whom the judges shall con- demn. Thus, with great propriety, we may apply the title of "^ui Sx, El Giborj to llezekiah, indicating thereby that he would be a valiant hero, a great captain; this is confirmed by passages in Scrip- ture, describing him as a man of valor (2 Kings, chapter xx. 20): ^*And the rest of the acts of He- Eckiah, and all his might," &c. The words ij? ^3i<, AU *ad, which the preacher translates Pater jEternitatiSj is translated b}" Mon- tano (in a marginal note), Pater Secull, Father of the Age; to bo convinced that this is correct, we need only refer to the Sacred Text. After the separation of the Ten Tribes from those of Judah and Benjamin, the pious and de- vout kings of the former, namely, Asa, Jehosha- phat, Jotham, although they anxiously endea- von-'d to ct^tablish divine Avorship in their own THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 139 kingdom, abstained from interfering with that of Israel, either from its appearing to them im- possible to restore it, owing to the contumacy of their kings, or through fear that any communi- cation between Israel and Judah would be likely to infect the latter with their detestable worship of idols. Whereas, llezekiah, the father of the age^ the common father of both, taking as much care of the strayed sheep that were not under Lis charge as of those sheltered in his own sheep- fold, wrote letters, despatched couriers, and sent qualified persons to all the towns and cities of Israel, exhorting the Israelites to return to the worship of the true God, and to leave the ac- cursed calves; and, with his wonderful counsel, managed this great w^ork so admirably as to bring back the alienated Jews to the true wor- ship, as appears from chapter xxx. 1, of the 2d Eook of Chronicles: "llezekiah also sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters to Ephraim and Menasseh, inviting them to come to Jerusa- lem, to the house of the Lord, to celebrate the Passover of the Lord God of Israel;" and by tho same wonderful counsel he transferred the Pass- over to the second month ; thus it is said: "And the king took counsel with his princes and with all the congregation in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover in the second month." This ena- bled them all to celebrate it together; and that many of the Israelites actually did come appears 140 KEFUTATION OF THE SERMON OP from the same Book, chapter xxx. 11: "More- over, men of the tribes of Asher, Menasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jeru- salem;" and in verse eighteen it says: "For many of the people of Ephraim and Menasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet ate of the Passover, contrary to what was command- ed; but llezekiah prayed for them, saying: *0 God! who art benevolent, be merciful to all those who have prepared their hearts to seek thee !'" It will thus be seen how just a claim he had to the title of father of the age and wonderful counsellorj in having taken so much care to re- store them to favor with God. That he was the Prince or Arbiter of Peace, there can be no doubt. For what person in that age would venture to oppose Almight}^ God, who, by so many prodi- gies, had proclaimed himself the protector of lle- zekiah; since He sent an angel to be the comman- der of his armies, a prophet to heal his diseases, and ordered the sun to retrograde in its diurnal course in order to confirm his prophecies by this marvelous event, which caused Baladan, king of Babylon, to send ambassadors to inquire into this miracle, and to seek his alliance? From the above-mentioned chapters, translated literally, and applied to the actual persons of whom they treat, we find that the sign the pro- phet gave to Ahaz was, that the young woman had conceived, and that she would give birth to THE ARCHBISHOI* OP CRANGANOR. 141 a son who should be called Immanuel. The pro- phet had taken two faithful witnesses to record, namely, Uriah and Zechariah; and succeeding events were found to bo in perfect accordance with the prophecy. The prophet went to the young woman, who was his wife; she conceived and gave birth to a son : him they named Imma- nuel, and before he had arrived at years of dis- cretion the designs of the two allied monarchs were rendered abortive. Such then is the literal exposition of this pro- phecy; and to attempt to dispute it would bo only arguing in opposition to facts. Indeed, such an attempt, in the eyes of those who have stu- died the Scriptures free from all bias, must ap- pear a virtual acknowledgment of defeat, and a mere display of weakness. Moreover, this mira- cle or sign was given to Ahaz and the house of David, in order to certify to them that the kings of Samaria and Aram would not follow up their intentions, and that their designs would be frus- trated. How then could a sign be given to them to indicate what was to happen in the course of about seven hundred years, in order to show w^hat was to occur within two or three years P and how could the prophet say (from an event which was to occur about seven hundred years subse- quently), " It shall come to pass, that before the child shall know to distinguish between bad and good, the land you hate shall be bereft of its two 142 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OF king8?" Are not these two kings Kczin, king of Aram, and Pckah, king of Israel ? And is it not clearly meant that they should both be defeated and conquered in battle, and should lose their kinffdoms? How, then, to assure them of Avhat was to occur in their lifetime, could he give them a sign from what was to happen seven hundred years later, and this to an incredulous and idola- trous king like Ahaz: would it not have exposed the prophet to the derision of the king and his court? Most assuredly it would; and the learned among the Christians, who study this prophecy impartially, are not ignorant of this, and conse- quently agree that such is the true, literal, and genuine sense, as confessed by Eusebius Basili- us, Geronimus Cirilius, and Theodoretus, among the ancients; and there are but few among the well informed moderns w^ho do not acquiesce therein, and admit that even the allegorical sense is not solely applicable to Christ, but might equally be adapted to any other person, without perverting or straining the text : whence we see that those erudite and wise men knew that the allegorical sense is not compulsory, and there- fore is insufficient to constrain the Jews to ad- mit it. All are agreed that the prophecy explain- ed literally is clear and obvious, and not in the least degree perplexed or obscure ; and that it was fulfilled a few years afterwards, as the pro- phet predicted, to the very letter. THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 148 But this is not the case when we attempt to apply it in an allegorical sense to Ciirist; for it then becomes obscure, confused, and inappropri- ate, and compels us to resort to the corrupt text of the Vulgate to render it applicable, and even that will not be found sufficient. 1 flatter myself that I have placed this pro- phecy in such a light as to show my co-religion- ists (as is the purport and scope of my refuta- tion) how little reason the learned preacher has to exult over this passage : and he could only do BO among those whose ignorance rendered them unable to discern the truth, or whose dread of punishment prevented their proclaiming it. The preacher, in confirmation of his hypothe- sis, refers to chapters xxiii. and xxxiii. of Jere- miah, gives the verses five and six of chapter xxiii., and attempts to explain them after his own views, as alluding to the Messiah; stating that the prophet says, "That a just king will come," &c., and 'Hhat king will be called Deus Jus- tus )ioster." However, he takes no farther notice of chapter xxxiii.; and, deeming his bare asser- tion sufficient, unhesitatingly affirms that, from the verses of these two chapters, it is evident that the Messiah must be God and man. I am not surprised at his omitting verses fifteen and sixteen of chapter xxxiii.; for he has done a simi- lar thing in the sixth paragraph, wherein he quotes from chapter xlii. of Isaiah, in which God »J 144 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OF *% threatens his people with chastisement and cala- mities, and omits the forty-third, that immedi- ately follows, wherein He encourages and con- soles them with affection and tenderness. Let us examine, then, these two verses, by which means we may penetrate into the true cause of this omission : "7n Biebus illis salvabitur Juda, et Jerusalem habitabit confidentery et hoc est nomen vo- cabunt eum, Dominus Justus noster." I know not to what we are to refer this eum masculine, when the Hebrew says n^ (lah), a pronoun feminine, which can only refer to the city of Jerusalem ; this being indubitably the case, the verso must mean Jerusalem shall be called "God is our right or justice:" this same word is applied to the Mes- siah in chapter xxiii. Now, as the preacher says that, since he is so called, he must be both God and Many it would follow that Jerusalem, bear- ing a similar name, is at the same time God and City. The like I say of the altar erected by the patriarch Jacob in Shechem (Genesis, chap, xxxiii. 20). The like of that erected by Moses for the victory obtained over Amalek, w^iich he called " God is my standard." The same with the altar of Gideon, which he called "God of peace j" and, finally, the same with Jerusalem, when the pro- phet Ezekiel, in the last verse of his book, says, that Jerusalem will bo called " God is there." — Now, to conclude my observations on this point, the reverend preacher should be told, that the THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 145 hymn he names, which is chaunted in the Syna- gogue on every Sabbath and Holiday evening, is, in fact, a declaration of the articles of the Law which the Jews profess, and that the third of tho said articles declares that God is incorporeal, and consequently is 7iot Maiiy which article of tho creed is derived from various parts of the Bible. Moses says, addressing the people (Dent. chap, iv. 12): "And God spoke to you from amidst the fire; you heard a voice speaking, but you saw no similitude, only a voice;" and farther says (Deut. chap. iv. 15), " Take good heed to your- selves; for ye saw no similitude on the day that God spoke to you out of the midst of the fire;" and continues, charging them strenuously not to make a likeness of any manner of creature. Ba- laam, although a gentile, says : ''God is not Man that ho should lie, nor the Son of Man that he should repent." The holy prophet Samuel said to King Saul : " Surely, the Strength of Israel will not lie, nor repent; for he is not Man that he should repent." ''Etetiamfortitudo Israelis non inentietur nee poenitiidine ducetur; non enim homo est nt poeniteat illum*^ Ezekiel said to Hiram, king of Tyre, who boasted of being a god: "Perchance thou mayest venture to say before the assassin, I am God; then thou shalt be made to know that thou art but man, not a god, when in the power of thy murderer/' ^'Nunquid dicendo Deus sum, coram I f i (I 146 BEFUTATION OF THE SERMON OF ^ interfectore tuo; tu autem Homo eSj et non Dens, in manu interfectoris tui:" finally, God says through His prophet : " I will not, according to the fury of my wrath, I will not again do injury to Eph- raim; for I am God, and not Man/' '^JS^on faciam secundum iram furoris mei, non revertar ad disper- dendum Ephraim, quoniam Bens sum et non VirJ* These are the pillars on which this most im- portant article, the immateriality of God, rests; "which, if any Jew should deny, ho would not only be considered a heretic, but a renegade, and forfeit among his people all claim to the denomi- nation of Jew : can it then be imagined that the nation will cease to believe an article so clear, and so frequently reiterated by the prophets, to follow the exposition contended for by the rever- end father? Thus the honor of the learned Rabbi Solomon stands vindicated and cleared from the vile ca- lumny of having falsified the words of the pro- phets; and sufficient proof has been given that, as a Jewish theologian, ho could not believe or imagine that chapter ix. of Isaiah, and chapters xxiii. and xxxiii. of Jeremiah declare that the Messiah must be Man and God, The same remark will apply to the eminent Eabbi Aben Ezra; to Jonathan, the son of Uziel, and, finally, to every son of Israel, no matter how uninstructed or ignorant. However this may be, I cannot but express my astonishment THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 147 that the preacher, who endeavors to make it ap- pear that Jonathan, the son of Uziel, infers from the words (in chapter ix. of Isaiah, ver. 6), "/;i. fans natus est;' that the Messiah is God, does not avad himself of his authority and countenance in chapter xxiii. and xxxiii. of Jeremiah, but uses the Hebrew text alone, without adverting to the Chaldee paraphrase; and that he should exercise his ingenuity in again calumniating the innocent but persecuted Rabbi Solomon, charo-. ing him with having ililsified the text in chapter xxiii of Jeremiah, and venture to assert that the true reading gives : "And this is the name that they shall call him/' not "that He shall call him " Tvhich latter he treats as a corruption introduced by the rabbi; and that he should quote the text of chapter xxiii., where he makes the prophet de- Clare that the Messiah is God, and omits to quote from chapter xxxiii, where precisely the same language is applied to the city of Jerusalem. What reply can he make to this? that he does ^ot pretend to say that the city of Jerusalem is God. Granted; but why, then, does he set up a general axiom, affirming that the Tetragramma- ton IS applied to none other but God, when in fact we find it applied to inanimate objects, such as altars and cities ? Agreeably to his axiom, all these things must be gods; he may endeavor to solve the difficulty by saying that man, as the most noble of all creatures, was alone capable and J 148 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OF % worthy of being united with the Deity; to this I answer, I only know that God has declared, by the mouth of Ilis prophet Ilosea, "I am God and not Man," and I need say no more. XXV. and XXYI. — The preacher goes on to say, that the rabbins explain the prophecy in chapter ix. of Isaiah as relating to Ilezekiah, and in chapters xxiii. and xxxiii. of Jeremiah, to David and Zerubabel. As regards Isaiah, the preacher is correct in affirming that the rabbins aj^ply the passage to Ilezekiah, and I am of the same opinion, as may be seen by the exposition of the prophecy above given, where I have shown that the first verses of chapter ix. treat of nothing else but the miraculous triumph that Israel gained over Sennacherib; according to such view, the two parts of the chapter agree in alluding to one and the same event; and there is no occamon to interpret it as referring to the Messiah, who is sufficiently spoken of in many other passages of the Bible. As to the two chap- ters of Jeremiah, I know no rabbi who thinks they allude to any one else but the Messiah. The preacher bestows needless labor in at- tempting to prove that Eabbi Solomon has falsi- fied the text, and in ridiculing the exaggeration of the writers, who relate of the eminent Jona- than, that a fly passing over any of his writings was instantly consumed. Had the preacher re- flected that the rabbinical style is frequently THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 149 figurative, he would have perceived that the above cited metaphorical passage merely implied that this great man was so studious and atten- tive during his meditations on the Law, that, should any worldly thought intrude on his mind while so engaged, it was instantly subdued and annihilated. XXYII. — The reverend preacher takes great pains to prove that the passage in chapter ix. of Isaiah speaks of the Messiah; and to this end' brings forward a host of rabbins, ancient and modern, as of that opinion. Although we have had sufficient evidence already of how littlo weight can be attached to the preacher's pre- tended proofs, I am willing, for the sake of ar- gument, to waive my objections, and will be lib- eral enough to invite all Israel to take it for granted, as he says; for, after all, the principal question (summa rerum) is to ascertain if the Messiah truly is God. XXXIII.— Our author alleges that the rab- bins, finding themselves in difficulty on points proposed to them, could find no means to extri- cate themselves, except by vitiating the text; but they had no necessity to vitiate the text, since we see that the aforementioned article of their creed directly forbids any Jew to believe that God can be also man. XXXIY. — XXXIX. — These are answered by the aforementioned article of belief. In the 23d IP 150 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OP chapter, we grant that Jeremiah speaks of tho Messiah ; but not that he says, nor that it can possibly be inferred from his words, that the Mes- siah is God. XI^I. — Two rabbins are herein named, viz: E. Osscas and K. Simeon ben Jochay. Hubbi Osseas never appeared in rerum natura. There is not and never was a rabbi of that name. The other, who he affirms flourished many years before Christ, was not in existence till more than a cen- tury after, and in no book attributed to him do we find what the preacher has stated; and fiir- ther, were such an opinion to appear in any book that has come down to us (which we absolutely deny), that rabbi would bo condemned as a re- negade, and his doctrine would carry wilh it no weight whatever. XLII. — The same reply may be made to this section, namely, that whoever believes or writes that the Messiah is God and Man, is no Jew; that is to say, he does not profess the Law of Moses, consequentlj' his doctrine cannot influence ns as Jews. Towards the end of this same sec- tion, the observation made in the sixth is repeat- ed, and a quotation given from chapter xlii. ver. 22 of Isaiah, *^Ipse autem pojndus direptus et vas- tatus.** In addition to what I have already re- marked upon this passage, I refer the reader to chapter xliii., which annihilates all that the preacher advances; for it states clearly that Is- TIIE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANQANOH. 151 rael is God's people, and that redemption is as- surcd to them in accordance with the statements in the preceding chapter. XLIII. and XLiy.— The reverend father boasts, with much confidence, of having con- vinced tho Jews by chapter xlix. verse 10 of Ge- nesis, ^'^^on aufcretur sceptnim a Juda, nee scriba defemore ejus donee veniat Shilo (pel qui mittendus est) et ipse aggregatio populorum." But he should be informed that he is much deceived in his con- ception of this prophecy. It must be kept in mind, that the name Judah represents four very diftorent objects, and is capable of as many dif- ferent acceptations, as is taught in the schools. It may be received for Judah, the son of Jacob, as in this same chapter (Genesis xlix. ver. 8), where it is said: -'Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise, the sons of thy father shall bow down to thee." It may bo received solely for the tribe of Ja^ dah, as in verse ten of tho abovementioned chap- ter, where it is said : " The sceptre shall not de^ part from Judah." Again, it may be taken for the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin; because, subsequently to the separation of the Ten Tribes, all the kings who reigned over the two are called kings of Judah, as tacitly comprising that of Benjamin ; finally, it may be taken for tho Twelve Tribes, which form the whole body of Israel, as in Jeremiah, chap, xxxiii. ver. 11, where, speak- 152 REFUTATION OP THE SERMON OF ing of the Messiah, it says : " In those days Ju- dah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall be in- habited in safety." Here, evidently, the name of Judah is used to denote all Israel. This incontrovertible principle being establish- ed, we are compelled to receive the name of Ju- dah in verse ten, where it says: **That the scep- tre shall not depart from Judah," as meaning neither the individual nor the Avhole nation, but the single tribe. Not the individual; for we can- not suppose that the patriarch understood that his son Judah would live and reign until the Mes- siah came, or that the verse really meant that the sceptre should not depart from Judah himself until the Messiah came. Nor was it meant to express the whole nation; for, as Jacob was blessing his sons, each separately, one by one, it is evident that he is addressing himself to Judah individually J and prophesies to him in the words: "Non auferetur sceptrum a Juda" that the sceptre shall remain permanently in his tribe without ever passing into the hands of any of the others; accordingly, the preacher cannot plead in ar- gument against the Jews that the sceptre de- parted from the nation on the birth of Christ, ■who, in his opinion, was the Messiah, inasmuch as the sceptre of Judah had failed many years antecedently in king Zedekiah, without ever re- turning to Judah; and, this being indisputably the case, it follows necessarily that the prophe- THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 153 cy is either false, or wrongly explained. In or- der to obviate these difficulties, it must be ob- served that, by understanding this prophecy in a literal sense, as in reason we ought to do, wo shall perceive that it contains no allusion to the Messiah, nor to any period later than the epoch of the separation of the kingdoms of Is- rael and Judah; much less does it treat of the tribes as members of the body of the nation, excepting in one instance, and that indirectly and incidentally. That it does not treat of the Messiah is fully proved by the circumstance re- lated in Scripture, that the holy patriarch hav- ing assembled his sons, proceeded to describe to them what was to happen at the end of days. (Genesis, chapter xlix. ver 1.) It might appear at first sight, from this passage, as if ho intended to make some allusion to the Messiah, always supposing that the expression, the end of days, is to be understood as denoting the period of the Messiah, in accordance with chapter ii. ver 2 of Isaiah, where the prophet, describing the supreme felicity of that epoch, says: »^And it shall come to pass at the end of days, or in the latter days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be estab- lished on the summit the mountains," &c. This prophecy we find confirmed in Micah, chapter iv. ver. 1, in precisely the same words. The prophet Jeremiah also makes use of the same terms, when describing the prosperity of # 154 REFUTATION OF THE SER^ION OF Israel at the epoch of the Messiah, in chapter XXX. ver. 24, and the prophet Ezekiel in chapter xxxviii. ver. IG. The holy patriarch then having used the same words, it might naturally enough, at first sight, bo supposed he was speaking of the Messiah, as before remarked ; but, when we come to investi- gate more closely what he said on that occasion, we shall find that he neither alluded to the Mes- siah, nor to the people of Israel in general. This is clearly evinced by what he said to his sons; since, as to Reuben, he only reproved him for his conduct with Bilha, also Simeon and Levi for their rash conduct towards Shechem on account of Dinah, (Judah we shall notice immediately.) To Zebulun he predicted that the territory allot- ted to him would be maritime. To Ashcr, that his country would be fertile and pleasant; and, in short, there is nothing said about the Mes- siah. It is true that all Christian commentators, and many of the Jews explain the words : "JVbn au- feretur sceptrum a Juda;" "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah," &c., figuratively, as relat- ing to the Messiah; however, the literal transla- tors among the Jews only understand it to indi- cate the separation of the kingdom of Israel from that of Judah, interpreting the prophecy in the following manner : " Thee, Judah, thy bre- thren will praise, and bow down to thee; for THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 155 thou art intrepid as a lion, and supremacy will be conceded to thee. The rule thou possessest over the whole nation will continue undivided until the Shilonite shall come, who will separate the Ten Tribes from the two others; and then to him, that is to say, to Judah, it will be left to gather together certain people, meaning the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with the priests and Levites dispersed throughout all Israel, who will quit their glebe-land, habitations, and pro- perty, and assemble in Jerusalem, as well as many other pious Israelites, who, imitating the priests and Levites, will fix their residence in the country of Judah, in order not to abandon the holy and divine worsliip professed by their pious and devout ancestors." That such is the genuine and literal sense of the prophecy concerning Judah there can be no doubt, from the numerous reasons that support this exposition, and from the many irrefragable objections thai arise against a figurative expla- nation, as we shall proceed to prove. The first objection is, that the allegorists seek by violently torturing the word Shiloh to make it imply the Messiah, when, in fact, it is the name of a famed city in the Holy Land, wherein the Ark of God reposed during three hundred and sixty-nine years^ having been placed there by Joshua, as may be seen in chapter xviii. verse 1 of the Book of Joshua, in which it is named seven ft .& 156 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OF dill' '^ times; in Judges, six; in the first book of Sam- uel, eiglit times; in the first book of Kings, twice; in Jeremiah, four times; in Psalms, once; thus making twenty-eight times in all that it has been named in the Bible. The prophet Ahijah, the iShilonite, is named in 1 Kings, chapters xi., xii., and xiv., proving clearly -and literally that Shiloli Avas the name of a cit}', and the prophet Ahijah a native of that city; I know not, then, what could induce the allegories to construe the name of a city so well known in a sense so remote from its true signification. The second objection, which appears unanswerable, militates against Jonathan son of Uziel, and Onkelos, for having framed an allegory on a principle that has not only been contested, but is actually contradicted by the evidence of facts, affirming, as they do, that the sceptre would not fail Judah until the advent of the Messiah, whereas they must have known that it did fail in the Babylonian captivity, — and that the nation, after being re-establish- ed in Judea, and living under subjection to the Persians and Greeks, at length succeeded in breaking and throwing off" the heavy and cruel yoke of the latter, and took for themselves kings from the tribe of Levi, and not from that of Ju- dah, — and, when these became extinct, they chose Ilerod and his descendants for their kings, until nearly the end of the second temple, when the Bceptro, that is, what little power had remained THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 157 in the nation, ceased altogether until the present time. In proceeding to investigate this formidable objection, we are first compelled to suppose that two eminent sages like these could not be so rash as to frame an allegory so contradictory to the literal sense; for, if what the allegory represents be true, what the patriarch says must be false, as proved by the preceQing quotations. Next it becomes necessary to explain the allegory in a manner not only that it may be seen not to con. tradict the prophecy, but that it may indicate something of the same tendenc}'. The learned, both Jews and Christians, ever prefer the literal sense to the figurative. The rabbins clearly say, in the Treatise on the Sab- bath, chapter v., that "the Sacred Text can never be diverted from its literal signification;'' and Cornclio a Lepide, in his Canons on the Penta- teuch, Can. 40, says : «7w sensu literali omnis sen^ tenticc omniaque verba debent expUcare et accommo- dari rd significatce, id autem non est necesse in sensu allegoricor Allowing this, we find that, accord- ing to the paraphrases of Jonathan and Onkelos, the literal sense of the patriarch's prophecy is contrary to, and incompatible with the allegori- cal interpretation ; for, agreeably to that, from the time King David held the sceptre, the sove- reignty should never have failed from the house of David, which is the same thing as to say from 0* ! -V to I 158 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OF the tribe of Judah. ''Sed sic est/' that it did fail in Zedekiah, the last king, at the destruction of Jerusalem, without ever returning to that tribe, as was seen in the second temple; ergo, conform- ably to the allegory of these sages, we are con- strained to say, either that the patriarch's pro- phecy was false (which woukl be an odious he- resy and horrid blasphemy), or that the two al- legorists knew not how {o adapt the allegorical to the literal sense; this woukl be a paradox, as the interpretation given b}- them of many pas- sages in the Bible, that would otherwise have appeared tons incomprehensible, clearly evinces the knowledge and capabilities of these most eminent sages. The dilKculty is greatly enhanced on seeing that, since the destruction of the se- cond temple, till the present time, the sceptre has fiiiled in Israel; how, then, can we ever re- concile the allegory with the prophecy, since the allegory confidently affirms that the sceptre will never fail in Judah, whereas the prophecy neither promises nor indicates any such thing? The only mode I can see of solving this formidable diffi- culty, is to draw a distinction between posses- sion and jurisdiction, and to understand the text conformably to the allegorists, as representing the patriarch to speak of jurisdiction, not of ac- tual posscssioTif which will serve to make the Bense of the prophecy clear. '* Judah (said the holy patriarch), thy brethren THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 159 will cede the superiority to thee, thy father's children will bow dow^n to thee, for thou art in- trepid, and bold as a lion." If, in any time, Judah should forfeit the crow^n, and the sceptre pass into another tribe, the patriarch assures him that he has nothing to fear, for what ho had lost would bo merely the possession for a limited time; the jurisdiction always remaining intact and reserv- ed, to be enjoyed as a perpetual possession in the person of the future Messiah. Nevertheless, as the greater number of com- mentators are ever inclined to view the phrase, "Non aufcrctiir sccptrum a Jiida/' as a prophecy assuring this tribe of a continued and uninter- rupted empire until the coming of the Messiah, I find it requisite to invalidate this opinion, and to prove, from various passages and prophecies in the Holy Bible, that God had many times threatened his incorrigible people with the down- fall of their crown and destruction of their king- dom. In Leviticus, chapter xxvi. ver. 33, God says : "I will scatter you among the nations, and draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be de- solate, and your cities waste.'' Here we read of dispersion, desolation of the land, and the destruction of cities. Things in- compatible with the crown and sceptre. In Deuteronomy, chapter iv. ver. 27, we read, "And the Lord shall disperse you among the m 160 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OF nations, and ye shall be left few in number amonfj the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you/' In chapter xxviii. ver. 36, Moses says: "The Lord will bring thee, and thy king whom thou wilt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known." From these texts in the Pentateuch may clear- ly be inferred the total destruction of the king- dom, and the complete dispersion, of the nation. I, therefore, cannot perceive whence is derived this boasted certainty of the permanency of the kinfjdomof Judah till the advent of the Messiah. 1 am aware I shall be told that this promise is made perfectly obvious and clear in 2 Samuel, chapter vii. verses 15 and 16, where God says to David, speaking of his son Solomon, " But my mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee ; and thine house and thy kingdom shall be establish- ed forever before thee : thy throne shall be es- tablished forever." In 1 Kings, chapter ix. ver. 3, to the 11th in- clusive, in a vision that appeared to Solomon, after having dedicated the temple, God said to him, that He had accepted his dedication, and that His name. His eyes, and His heart, would attend on that house perpetually, and that, if ho would follow the steps of David his father, serv- ing Him with a perfect and upright heart; and THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 161 observe Ilis precepts, that He would establish his throne perpetually over Israel, as He had pro- mised to His servant David, saying, "There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel; but if you should turn from following me, yourself, or your children, and will not keep my command- ments and my statutes, which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them : then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them ; and this house, which I have hallowed for the sake of my name, will I cast out of my sight, and Israel shall be a pro- verb and a byword among all people; and at this house, which is now so high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss, and exclaim. Why hath the Lord done this unto this land and to this house? And the reply shall be, Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and they resorted to other gods, and they worshipped them and served them ; there- fore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil." This revelation and promise explain what God would do for David, from "which we may incon- testably infer, that the greatness, the happiness, and the perpetuity of the sovereignty which God promised David and Solomon, were only condi- tionalj and not absolute. Although secundum al- egata et probata, my hypothesis is already firmly m 162 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OP ostablislicd, to the effect that God never did pro- mise the patriarch Jacob, or king David, or king Solomon, his son, the perpetuity of the crown (at least until the advent of the Messiah), I will, by way of putting the question forever at rest, proceed to show, that so far from such promise iiaving ever been made, God revealed to ]>avid the profanation of the temple, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the cruel massacre of the people; all which David bitterly bewails in Psalm Ixxix., wherein ho says : *' O Lord ! the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled : they have laid Jerusalem in heaps; the dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat to the fowls of heaven ; the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth 1 Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them." The remainder of the Psalm is filled with lamentation over the calamities of the nation. — This Psalm was cither composed by Assaph, the Levite, a musician of the holy house, and dedi- cated to David, or may have been composed by David himself, and dedicated to Assaph, as may bo inferred from chapter xxv. of Ist Chronicles: and as all the Psalms were of divine inspiration, we must conclude that God chose to reveal to David the future destruction of Jerusalem ; nor will it avail to say, that David speaks of his own time, deploring the losa of some battle, the result THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 163 of which constituted the misery that the Psalm- 1st describes. It will not avail, I say, to use a frivolous subterfuge, it being obvious to us, that David never had a battle but wherein he was victorious; and it is a notorious fact, that tho gentiles never did, in his time, either enter Jeru- salem, defile the temple, or demolish the holy city; and that the massacre described in tho Psalm never took place. Ergo, this must have been a prophetic revelation to David or to Assaph, whence it may be deduced that David knew that God's promise of perpetuity of the sovereignty in his family was condiiional, not absolute. To silence criticism effectually, and leave no room for contradiction, it will be sufficient mere- ly to read Psalm cxxxii. 11, 12, where it says, "The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David, ho will not turn from it, Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall sit upon thy throne for evermore." From these verses we see that David himself acknowledges that the perpetuity of the king, dom and his family, previous to the coming of tho Messiah, was to be conditional, and not abso- lute. We might also quote the Psalm cxxxvii. which represents the people as captives in Baby- lon; but there being no title attached to this Psalm, and there being many who suppose it to i M *m 1 / 4 1-1 1G4 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OF Lave been compogcd in Babylon by some feeling and pious person (although such is not my opin- ion), I will not make use of it, more especially as I consider that the arguments already adduced have established my hypothesis on an indestruc- tible foundation. XLY. and LII.— In order to prove his assump- tion, the preacher recurs to the statue in INebu- chadnezzar's dream, interpreting the three first metals, gold, silver, and copper, to mean the three monarchies, Chaldean, Persian, and Greek, and applies the fourth, iron, to Iloman, ascribing the potter's clay to the Jewish kingdom, which was not united with the iron, but mixed with it,— mixed, that is to say, by the alliance that exist- ed between the Eomans and the Jews, by virtue of which the Romans were obliged, in case of war, to succor and defend them, lie then adds, that the stone without hands, that struck the statue and reduced it to powder forever, scattered and destroyed the clay, together with the four me- tals. I would ask the Lord Archbishop, supposing that Israel is doomed to remain permanently scattered and destroyed, what necessity would there be for the Messiah? and for whom need he to come? who would there be to enjoy the pro- mised greatness and happiness during the period of his reign? How would the prophecy be ac- complished that Jeremiah proclaims (chap, xxiii. THE ARCHBISHOP OP CRANGANOR. 165 5), "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a just king shall reign and prosper, and shall do justice and charity in the land; in his days shall Judah be saved, and Israel shall dwell in safety" &c.? The same is confirmed in chap, xxxiii., ver. 15 and IG, and also in ver. 17, where it says, "Thus saith the Lord, There shall not be cut off from David a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel." Kow if the destruction of Israel had been typified by the crumbling of the clay of the colossus, according to the hypothesis of the arch- bishop, over whom is this just and charitable king to reign? Who are the people that are to enjoy his mild dominion? What nation will have the merit to attain the favor of his protec- tion? It is a dangerous experiment, by means of any such ill-explained and misapplied allegories, to attempt to convince the nation among whom it has never been the practice to swerye from the literal sense of Holy Writ, and that with good reason and justice, as the literal word of God is pure, clear, unalterable, inviolable, and incontro- vertible, whilst allegory is merely a frail human invention, frequently inapplicable, and when ap- plicable, oftener conducing to error than to truth. Besides the incontestable proofs quoted from the prophet Jeremiah, an infinite number more ,<►. m 166 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OP f ' m might be collected from all the prophets; how- ever, I shall confine myself solely to confuting the false proposition which the preacher ventures to advance (namely, that the breaking in pieces of the clay of the statue, is to be interpreted as applicable to Israel), and endeavor to convince him by the words of the prophet Daniel, chap- ter ii. ver. 44. "Forro tempore regum istorum susci- tavit Deus coeli regnum quod in externum non cor- rumpitur, et regnum istud poptilo alteri non relinque- ter; comminuet et consumat omnia ista regna, et ip- sum stahit in ceternum /" "But in the days of these kings the God of Heaven will raise up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be sur- rendered to any other people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever!" The toes, partly of iron, and partly of clay, in- dicate that a portion of the kingdom should re- main firm, and the rest be broken up. It cannot be inferred that there are two kingdoms, as the preacher imagines; but merely, that there is one kingdom, part of which will be strong, and the other part weak. ErgOj he cannot affirm that the clay is a filth kingdom, indicating the Jew- ish empire. XL VIII. — Our author proceeds with much confidence to assert, that the prophet foretells that the advent of the Messiah would take place while THE ARCHBISHOP OP CRANGANOR. 167 the Eoman empire and the Jews were still min- gled together; and that, on his coming, he would destroy in the Jews the clay of their kingdom, and in the Eomans the iron of their empire; for from the ruins of these two dominions would arise the kingdom of the Messiah, which, &c. From this, he brings to bear against the Jews a dilemma, which appears to him to be irrefut- able, alleging that the Eoman empire is no long- er mingled with the kingdom of the Jews; nor is the kingdom of the Jews mingled with that em- pire, for that both these powers are destroyed; and goes on to say, that the kingdom of Christ is now spread all over the world, and denies that the Messiah can come after that destruction, but that the destruction was to follow his coming. So formidable does the preacher consider this di- lemma, that he persuades himself the Jews will remain convinced and confuted, without having a word to say in reply; but he does not consider what has been stated and proved above, namely, that in this colossal statue there was no sub- stance whatever that indicated the Jews. This having been already clearly established, we see the chimerical invention of the preacher's dilemma, as completely fallen, demolished, and crumbled into dust, as the statue of JS^ebuchadnezzar itself. To confirm this fact, it will be sufficient merely to read the beginning of Daniel chapter vii., where he relates seeing, in a vision, the same four mo- 168 REFUTATION OP THE SERMON OP I i narchies, which Nebuchadnezzar had seen repre- Bented by the four metals, gold, silver, copper, and iron, depicted to him under the type of four "wild beasts, — a lion, a bear, a tiger, and another, whose figure he only describes as monstrous, hide- ous, and most dreadful in form and aspect. If then this vision of Daniel was the counter- part of that of Kebuchadnezzar, with this single difference, that the emblems in the one case consist- ed of metals, and in the other of animals, it fol- lows, that, as in Daniel's we count only four ani- mals, representing the four monarchies, so in Kebuchadnezzar's the number must also be four. To convince the Jews by means of allegories, is as futile as to attempt retaining water in a sieve; for the Ilebrow nation never abandons the literal sense of the Scriptures; concluding, and with reason, that the literal sense is the true word of God, pure, sincere, inviolable, and infal- lible, while allegory is nothing more than a con- jecture, an idea, a presumption, a chimera, con- cocted from the slender materials that the circum- scribed knowledge of the human mind can supply. The preacher explains the metals in Nebuchad- nezzar's statue, according to the principles which he considers suited to his own purpose, and, con- trary to the fact, represents the Eoman empire as already destroyed. To see this more clearly, it must be noticed, that the Persians, who con- quered the Babylonian monarchy, destroyed and THE ARCHBISHOP OP CRANGANOR. 169 annihilated it in a manner that it remained extra rerum naturamy as we learn from the sacred Scrip- tures, and from the history of those times, which explains the statue^s remaining without the head of gold. The Persian monarchy was subverted and demolished by the Greeks, that of the Greeks, by the Eomans; thus three metals are disposed of, and there only remains the iron, mixed with the clay. This indicates the Eoman empire, which subsists and remains, down to the present day. True, it is not with so extended a territory, or wide a jurisdiction, as in former times, but still incontrovertibly as the same Eoman empire, al- though confined within very narrow limits; for the emperor of Germany, before being crowned emperor, takes up the title, in his father's life, of king of the Eomans, and after becoming empe- ror, enjoys the same titles and dignities as his ancestors, he being called Caesar and Augustus; and, as such, a pre-eminence is conceded to him by all the kings and potentates of Europe, with- out dispute or opposition. If the feet of iron, which represent the Eoman empire, remain, it involves a contradiction, to suppose that the stone now fills the earth with its bulk; for the prophet says, that the stone, after having reduced all the metals to dust, was converted into an immense mountain, that filled the whole earth: now, allowing that the fourth metal still subsists, there can be no stone, for they 170 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OF cannot exist together; ^^Sed sic est/' th»nt the metal does exist; ergo, the stone cannot yet have ap- peared, and consequently the Messiah is not yet come. To establish the doctrine of the Messiah's having already come, our author avails himself of the pretended authority of the Talmudic rab- bins, whom he quotes as affirming that the final D {Mem) contained in the word naiD^ (Jemarbe) Isaiah, chapter ix. verso 7, w4iich numerically represents six hundred, indicates that so many years had passed from the promulgation of that prophecy to the death of Christ; and that it had always been held, that when those six hundred years were expired, the time for the Messiah's appearance would be close at hand. lie farther adds, that the rabbi in question flourished two hundred years after the birth of Christ. If this were the case, how can it be explained, that, knowing the predicted period had so long elaps- ed, he did not renounce the Mosaic law, and pro- fess the Christian doctrine ? To vanquish these imaginary difficulties, re- presented by our author as so formidable, let tho good father be informed, that the Jews will not deviate one iota from the literal meaning of the text, nor will they ever admit of converting the plain literal sense into allegory; but when any passage occurs which is obviously figurative, they THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 171 will endeavor to resolve it into a sense as nearly approaching the literal as the text will allow. Let him learn also, that the Talmud is compos- ed of canons, dogmas, and regulations for the ri- tual; and that when in case of a doubt arising among the rabbins upon any point therein treat- ed, after having been thoroughly discussed and canvassed in their midrasli, or college, it has been solved and decided by a plurality of voices, con- formably to tho opinion that appears to carry with it the greatest weight : such decision is pre- served and followed by the Jews, as rigidly as if it were the written law itself. On the other hand, as is well known, the Talmud contains an immense number of allegories in reference to every part of the Bible, which frequently give rise to questions that are agitated and investi- gated like the rest, but are never absolutely de- termined nor decided upon, and only serve to elicit some moral conclusions for the people, which, if well selected and well applied in ser- mons, are likely to produce useful eflPects on tho congregation. But to come more immediately to the point at issue, i. e. the closed or final Mem which occurs in the middle of the word, and which the Talmud- ists (if we may believe the preacher) understand to denote a number: I shall show, and with every appearance of probability, and in strict conformity with the circumstances of the times, m 172 REFUTATION OP THE SERMON OP TvmP that it may be accounted for by looking to the form of the letter itself. God having promised the pious and devout King Ilezekiah a solid and lasting peace, and a perpetual and uninterrupted tranquillity, not sa- tisfied with having signified this in mere verbal language, placed in the middle of the word the final MeiHy which being a close quadrangle, serv- ed the purpose of a hieroglyphic, to indicate to the king, that as this square is so shut in on all sides, that nothing can enter or break it, in like manner the peace ho was to enjoy would not be interrupted or broken in upon during his whole life, as, in fact, turned out to be the case. Here we perceive two allegories applied to this Meniy founded on two suppositions, both possible, both plausible, and both adequate. Let us ex- amine the value and meaning of the Talmudio allegory, and how far it extends. The Talmudic rabbi, according to the preacher, affirms, that the Messiah ought to come six hun- dred years after King Ahaz, in virtue of the closed or final Mem : well, so be it ; but it is re- quisite to examine the qualification of this rabbi, and how he became enabled to fathom this re- condite mystery, whether by reflection or by di- vine inspiration ; if it were from the latter of these means, it becomes a sort of prophecy, and as such demands our implicit acquiescence; but if obtained from his own meditations and ideas, THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 173 it is entitled to no greater influence or force than any other allegory; and being so, as, in fact, it is, there is no obligation to believe or receive it as if it were prophecy; on the contrary, the au- thor himself only advances it as a mere conjec- ture, believing the event possible (at the timo named), but not as sure to happen. This proves itself; for if the nation had received this predic- tion as prophetical, they would have acknow- ledged Christ to be the Messiah, that is to say, the Messiah promised in the closed J/ewi, but which they certainly did not. IjV. — It is ridiculous to object, as is done at the end of section fifty-three, that if the Jews deny that the 2Iem in Lemarhe signifies the six hundred years that elapsed between the fourth year of Ahaz and the coming of Christ, they would incur the penalty of death. The Lord Archbishop is much mistaken; for the obligation on the Jews to believe the rabbins extends no farther than to the doctrine and the ritual of the Law, as we may perceive from chap- ter xvii. verses 8 to 14 of Deuteronomy. But they are not compelled to believe in every rab- binical allegory. I have already remarked, that if any rabbi makes an allegorical statement or exposition of any passage in the Holy Scrip- tures, which the ]3reacher imagines may be turn- ed to his own advantage, he presents it in argu- ment to the Jews, as if it were with them an ar- M. i 174 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OF tide of faith, and persuades himself that he has thereby brought conviction home to their minds. According to this doctrine, I, for my disbelief in the rabbinical exposition of the Menif ought to be regarded by my nation as a heretic or schisma- tic; but this is far from being the case; for, as I have so often remarked, allegory is no more than a human idea, and as such not considered to carry with it any divine sanction ; thus, the argument drawn from the numerical signification of the 3167)1 falls to the ground, and needs no farther reply. The author of this refutation, oppressed by age and infirmities, has had no opportunity to see the book quoted by the reverend preacher; but, having attentively examined the passage alluded to in the works of Maimonides himself, finds that the archbishop, with his accustomed candor, has given a garbled extract therefrom, omitting the commencement of the discourse, which is es- sential to the true understanding of the para- graph in question. The author writes as follows :* "With regard to what you say relating to the period of the Messiah's coming, and what R. Sa- adya advances on the subject : first you ought to know that the precise time cannot be ascer- tained by any living being, as is declared in Dan- iel xii. 9, *And he said. Go thy way, Daniel, for THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR. 175 * Vide Epist. ad Orient the words are closed up and sealed till the end of time.' " However, ideas and opinions have been en- tertained by some learned men, who think they have ascertained it, and the prophet has touched on that point, saying, (Daniel xii. 4,) < Though you extend and increase knowledge greatly,' &c., meaning, that although opinions would multiply and various judgments be formed concerning the Messiah's coming, still no human prediction of that event would be accomplished; the prophet goes on to admonish us, not on that account to doubt of the truth of God's promise, and says, * Be not troubled if this be not accomplished at the time anticipated; but in proportion as his coming may be protracted, so let your hopes be increased;' as also says Ilabakkuk, chapter ii. verse 3, 'And though it tarries, wait for it, be- cause it will surely come.' " It deserves notice, that the period even of the Egyptian captivity, although to this God af- fixed a precise term (for we read in Genesis, chap- ter XV. verse 13, 'And they shall serve them, and be afliicted by them four hundred years,') is not exactly understood, being difficult to ascertain, some supposing that these four hundred years should be reckoned from the patriarch Jacob's going down into Egypt; others, from the time the captivity commenced, about seventy years later; others again were of opinion, that the pe- 176 REFUTATION OF THE SERMON OF riod was to bo reckoned from the time of the pa- triarch Abraham's receiving the revelation, and accordingly when the four hundred years of their reckoning were completed, certain Israelites left Egypt thirty years before the mission of Moses, thinking that the time of redemption had arriv- ed; and they were slain by the Egyptians, who increased the yoke of the captivity: this at least we are taught by our sages; and David alludes to these men in Psalm Ixxviii. verse 9, where ho Bays, ' The children of Ephraim, armed and car- rying bows, turned their back in the day of bat- tle!' " The true reckoning of the four hundred years was from the birth of Isaac, who was Abraham's successor, as we read in Genesis, chapter xxi. ver. 12, * For in Isaac shall thy generation be called.' In Genesis, chapter xv. verse 13, God said,