Exercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews

First Then, whereas it is a principle of their faith, That all Jews excepting Apostates are so holy and righteous, that they shall all be saved, have all a portion in the blessed world to come, whence is it that none of them, are so Righteous as to be returned into the Land of Canaan? Is it not strange, that that Righteousness which serves the turn to bring them all to Heaven, will not serve to bring any one of them to Jerusalem. This latter being more openly and frequently promised unto them then the former. I know not how to solve this difficulty; ipsi viderint.

Again, Repentance from their sins is a thing wholly in their own power, or it is not; if they shall say, it is in their own power, as generally they do; I desire to know why they defer it? The brave imaginations that they have of the levelling of Mountains, the dividing of Rivers, the singing of Woods, and dancing of Trees, of the Coaches and Chariots of Kings to carry them, as also their riding upon the shoulders of their rich neighbours into Jerusalem, the Conquest of the world, the eating of Behemoth, and drinking the Wine of Paradise, the Riches, Wives, and long Life that they shall have in the days of the Messiah, do make them as they pretend, patiently endure all their long exile, and calamity. And can this not prevail with them for a little Repentance, which they may perform when they please, with a wet finger, and so obtain them all in a trice? If they are so evidently blind, foolish and mad, in and about that which they look upon as their only great concernment in this world, have they not great cause to be jealous, lest they are also equally blind in other things, and particularly in that wherein we charge them with blindness? This it seems is the State of these things. Unless they repent, the Messiah will not come; unless he come, they cannot be delivered out of their calamity nor enjoy the promises. To repent is a thing in their own power, which yet they had rather endure all miseries, and forego all the promises of God then take in hand, or go through with it. And what shall we say to such a perverse generation of men, who openly proclaim, that they will live in their sins, though they have never more to do with God unto eternity. If they shall say, that Repentance is the gift of God, and that without his pouring forth his Spirit upon them, they cannot attain unto it, then I desire to know whence it is that God doth not give them Repentance, as he did to their fore-fathers, if the Covenant continue established with them, as in former days? From what hath been discoursed, It doth sufficiently appear that the state and condition of the Jews hath been such in the world, for these sixteen hundred years, as manifests the end of their special Covenant to be long since come, and consequently the Messiah, in whom it was to expire.