N01184:64
A dissertation concerning the future conversion of the Jewish Nation. Answering the objections of…
A dissertation concerning the future conversion of the Jewish Nation. Answering the objections of the Reverend and learned Mr. Baxter, Dr. Lightfoot, and others. : With an enquiry into the first resurrection. / By Increase Mather, president of Harvard-College, at Cambridge, in New-England. ; [Three lines from Jeremiah]A dissertation concerning the future conversion of the Jewish Nation. Answering the objections of the Reverend and learned Mr. Baxter, Dr. Lightfoot, and others. : With an enquiry into the first resurrection. / By Increase Mather, president of Harvard-Colledge, at Cambridge, in New-England. ; [Three lines from Jeremiah]
London: printed by R. Tookey for Nath. Hillier, 1709
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.
Reas. 2. The Jews did and do believe from the Scriptures of the Old Testament, not only that there shall be a Resurrection both of the just and unjust, but that the just shall rise first. It is uncertain who was the Author of the Apocryphal Book of Wisdom, only that he was a Jew, and one that probably wrote whilst they were yet a Church, and the Holy Spirit not wholly departed from them. There are many excellent Documents contained in that Book. Grotius says truly concerning it, Venerandam habet antiquitatem apud Christiano• semper in pretio est habitus. Now some judicious Writers conceive that he has Respect to the First Resurrection in Chap. 3. Ver. 6, 7. where he says of the righteous, that in the Time of their Visitation (so is the Resurrection styled) they shall shine, they shall judge the Nations, and have Dominion over the People, and their Lord shall reign for ever. The Jews believe that when Messiah comes, their Fore-fathers shall rise out of their Graves and reign with him. Some of their Rabbins speak of a particular, and of a general Resurrection. So Eben-Ezra on Dan. 12.2. And not only he, but this has been the Opinion of many of them. The Author of Sepher Abkat affirms, That many Doctors say, that when Messiah comes, [Greek or Hebrew] none shall live again but the just. Vid. Grelleti prodrom. in Apocalyp. p. 216. Kimchi and other Hebrew Doctors expound Psal. 1.5. Where 'tis said, the ungodly shall not ⟨p. 16⟩rise in the Judgment, nor Sinners in the Congregation of the Righteous, as excluding Sinners from partaking in the glorious Resurrection of the great Day of Judgment. There is a Place in Isaiah which both Jewish and Christian Expositors have interpreted of a particular Resurrection of the just before the universal Resurrection, viz. Isa. 26.19. The Prophet says that the dead Saints shall rise at the same Time with his dead Body, but in Verse 14. he says of the wicked, they shall not live, they are deceased, they shall not rise: Here seems to be a Distinction and Opposition of the Resurrection of the Saints to that of the wicked, declaring that when the one shall be, the other shall not be. The not rightly understanding these Scriptures has caused some of the Jewish Rabbis to run into the Heresy of denying an universal Resurrection.