11. midst of the whole earth. But we are not only a people,
Christians the nation promised to Abraham, Just, the prophets said, J7id many nations shall flee unto the ZechTT^^^*^ ^'^ ^^^^^ '^^^ /^^ ^ /?^op/^; a7id they shall dwell in the 11. midst of the whole earth.
But we are not only a people, Is. 62, but are also a holy people, as I have already shewn. And they shall call him a holy people, redeemed of the Lord.
We are not therefore a despicable people, nor a barbarous tribe, nor such as the races of Caria and Phrygia, but God has chosen us, and was manifested to those who asked not for Is. Go, 1. Him.
Behold, He says, / am God to a natiori ivhich has not called upon My Name.
For this is the nation which God formerly assured to Abraham, and promised that He would make him the father of many nations, not meaning the Arabians, nor the Egyptians, nor the Idumeans ; for Ishmael too became the father of a great nation, and Esau and there is even now a vast multitude of Ammonites.
And Noah was moreover the father of Abraham himself, and in fact of the whole race of man.
And other nations had other ancestors.
What more then did Christ grant to Abraham ?
That He called him with His voice by the like calling, and commanded him to go out of the land in which he was dwelling.
Yea, and He has called us all by that voice, and we have now gone out from that way of life in which we were living, like the other inhabitants of the world, in sin
; and together with Abraham we shall possess the holy land, receiving our inheritance for endless ages, being the children of Abraham through a like faith.
For just as he believed the voice of God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, so we also believing the voice of God, which is both spoken again through the Apostles of Christ, and proclaimed to us by the prophets, have renounced, even to death, all that is in the world.
Therefore He promised Him a nation of the like faith, and devout, and righteous, well-pleasing
Deut. to the Father, but not you, in whom is no faith.
1^0. " See indeed how He makes the same promises to ChrisIsaac and to Jacob ; for He speaks thus to Isaac, In thy seed were shall all the nations of the earth he blessed; and to Jacob, promised ^^^ ^j ^^Ijj^g g^ fj^^ earth shall be blessed in thee and in even to ^ Isaac, to //;?/ seed.
But He does not say so to Esau, nor to Reuben, an^d°to' f^oi' to any other, but those of whom Christ was to come Judah. according to the dispensation which was by the Virgin 4; 18, 4! Mary.
But if you would consider the blessing of Judah,
and the patriarchs.
Shiloh in Jacob's prophecy is Christ, 219 you would see what I mean.
For the seed is divided from Dial.
Jacob, and descends through Judah, and Phares, and Jesse, ^^^^°' and David : and these are signs, to shew that some of your nation should be found to be the children of Abraham, and in the portion of the Christ, but that others should be the children indeed of Abraham, but being like the sand upon the seashore, which is barren and unfruitful, much indeed in quantity and numberless, but producing no fruit whatever, and only drinking the water of the sea ; of which indeed a great multitude of your nation are convicted, drinking in the doctrines of bitterness and ungodliness, but rejecting the word of God.
For he says of Judah, A Prince shall Gen. 49, not fail from Judah, nor a Ruler from his thighs, till the things laid up for him come, and he shall be the expectation of the Gentiles.
*^ And it is plain that this was not spoken of Judah, but of Christ ; for we, who are of all nations, look not for Judah, but for Jesus, who also brought your fathers out of Egypt for until the coming of Christ the prophecy proclaimed beforehand. Until He comes for whom it is laid up, and He shall be the expectation of the Gentiles.
Jesus came then, as I have shewn at length, and He is expected to come again upon the clouds, whose name you profane yourselves, and labour to have it profaned throughout all the world.
" 1 might. Sirs," I continued, " contend with you about the above expression, which you translate, alleging that it is said.
Until the things laid up for him come, for the Seventy did not so render it ; but. Until He comes for whom it is laid up.
But since what follows proves that it was said of Christ; for it runs thus, And He shall be the expectation of the Gentiles, I will not dispute with you about a single little word, as I did not endeavour to establish my proof of Christ from the Scriptures, which are not acknowledged by you, which I cited from the words of Jeremiah the prophet, and Esdras, and David, but from such as are even now admitted by you ; which if your teachers had understood, be well assured that they would have removed them, as they did those about the death of Isaiah, whom you sawed asunder with a wooden saw; which also was a type of Christ, who would divide your nation in two, and would admit those