A53696:741
Exercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews
Exercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews also concerning the Messiah wherein the promises concerning him to be a spiritual redeemer of mankind are explained and vindicated, his coming and accomplishment of his work according to the promises is proved and confirmed, the person, or who he is, is declared, the whole economy of the mosaical law, rites, worship, and sacrifice is explained : and in all the doctrine of the person, office, and work of the Messiah is opened, the nature and demerit of the first sin is unfolded, the opinions and traditions of the ancient and modern Jews are examined, their objections against the Lord Christ and the Gospel are answered, the time of the coming of the Messiah is stated, and the great fundamental truths of the Gospel vindicated : with an exposition and discourses on the two first chapters of the said epistle to the Hebrews / by J. Owen ...Exercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews also concerning the Messiah wherein the promises concerning him to be a spiritual redeemer of mankind are explained and vindicated, his coming and accomplishment of his work according to the promises is proved and confirmed, the person, or who he is, is declared, the whole oeconomy of the mosaical law, rites, worship, and sacrifice is explained : and in all the doctrine of the person, office, and work of the Messiah is opened, the nature and demerit of the first sin is unfolded, the opinions and traditions of the antient and modern Jews are examined, their objections against the Lord Christ and the Gospel are answered, the time of the coming of the Messiah is stated, and the great fundamental truths of the Gospel vindicated : with an exposition and discourses on the two first chapters of the said epistle to the Hebrews / by J. Owen ...
London: printed by Robert White for Nathaniel Ponder, 1668
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
In the Talmud. Tractat. Sanhedrin, they have laid down this general Rule, Male pereant § 23 qui temporum articulos suppetunt quibus venturus est Messiah. Or as they express it by a solemn Curse in the name of Rabbi Jonathan, a great man among them. [Greek or Hebrew], let their bones rot who compute the times of the end. And in Shebet. Jehuda, (wherein they follow Maimonides in Jad. Chazekah, Tractat. de Regib. cap. 12.) they give a particular account of that solemn Malediction against the Computers of times. It was invented, they say, because upon the mistakes of their reckonings, or failings of their calculations, the people are apt to despond, and begin to suspect that he is already come. So openly do they own it to be an invention to shelter their unbelief against their convictions. Yet this hath not hindered some of their chiefest Doctors, when they hoped to make some advantage of it, (as when they saw their Disciples under any distress inclinable unto Christianity) to give out their conjectures without any respect unto the Talmudical Curse. So the Author of Shalscheleth Hakkabala assigns the year for the coming of the Messiah to be the 5335th from the Creation; which according to their computation fell out about the year of the Lord by our account 1575. Another would have it to be in the year 5358, that is, twenty three years after, in the year 1598. Abarbinel in his Comment on Isaiah comes short of these; assigning it to the year 5263. or 5294. at the farthest; for he had great expectations from the issue of the Wars between the Christians and Saracens that were in his days. Their utmost conjecture in Zohar is upon the year 5408. which with their wonted success, fell out in the year of our Lord 1648. or thereabouts. And all these Calculations were invented and set on foot to serve some present exigency.
In the Talmud. Tractat. Sanedrin, they have laid down this general Rule, Male pereant § 23 qui temporum articulos suppetunt quibus venturus est Messiah. Or as they express it by a solemn Curse in the name of Rabbi Jonathan, a great man among them. 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, let their bones rot who compute the times of the end. And in Shebet. Jehuda, (wherein they follow Maimonides in Jad. Chazekah, Tractat. de Regib. cap. 12.) they give a particular account of that solemn Malediction against the Computers of times. It was invented, they say, because upon the mistakes of their reckonings, or failings of their calculations, the people are apt to despond, and begin to suspect that he is already come. So openly do they own it to be an invention to shelter their unbelief against their convictions. Yet this hath not hindered some of their chiefest Doctors, when they hoped to make some advantage of it, (as when they saw their Disciples under any distress enclinable unto Christianity) to give out their conjectures without any respect unto the Talmudical Curse. So the Author of Shalscheleth Hakkabala assigns the year for the coming of the Messiah to be the 5335th from the Creation; which according to their computation fell out about the year of the Lord by our account 1575. Another would have it to be in the year 5358, that is, twenty three years after, in the year 1598. Abarbinel in his Comment on Isaiah comes short of these; assigning it to the year 5263. or 5294. at the farthest; for he had great expectations from the issue of the Wars between the Christians and Saracens that were in his dayes. Their utmost conjecture in Zohar is upon the year 5408. which with their wonted success, fell out in the year of our Lord 1648. or thereabouts. And all these Calculations were invented and set on foot to serve some present exigency.