SECT. XXII. And that human nature is worshipped by them.

To the other objection they make against us, namely, that we give the worship due to God to a being made by God; the answer is ready: for we say, that we pay no other worship or honour to the Messiah but what we are commanded in Psalm ii. and cx.⁷³¹⁷³¹   The very learned rabbi Saadia, explains these places, and Zachariah ix. 9. of the Messiah. the former of which was fulfilled in David only in an incomplete manner, and belonged more eminently to the Messiah, as David Kimchi, a great enemy to the Christians, acknowledges;⁷³²⁷³²   The same second psalm is expounded of the Messiah, by Abraham Esdras, and r. Jonathan in Beresith Rabba. and the latter cannot be explained of any other but the Messiah: for the fictions of the latter Jews, some of Abraham, some of David, and others of Hezekiah, are very trifling. The Hebrew inscription skews us, that it was a psalm of David’s own. Therefore, what David says was said to his Lord, cannot agree to David himself, nor to Hezekiah, who was 225of the posterity of David, and no way more excellent than David. And Abraham had not a more excellent priesthood; nay, Melchisedech gave him his blessing, as inferior to himself.⁷³³⁷³³   And received the tithe of him by a sacerdotal right. Gen. xiv.19, 20. But both this, and that which is added, concerning a sceptre’s coming out of Sion,⁷³⁴⁷³⁴   Psalm cx. 2. and extending to the most distant places, plainly agrees to the Messiah; as is clear from those places which, without doubt, speak of the Messiah;⁷³⁵⁷³⁵   As Gen. xlix. 10. and those before cited out of the prophets. neither did the ancient Hebrews and parsphrasts understand them otherwise. Now that Jesus of Nazareth was truly the person in whom these things was fulfilled, I could believe upon the affirmation of his disciples only, upon the account of their great honesty; in the same manner as the Jews believe Moses, without any other witness, in those things which he says were delivered to him from God. But there are very many and very strong arguments besides this, of that exceeding power which we affirm Jesus to have obtained.⁷³⁶⁷³⁶   See them handled before in the second book; and what is said in the beginning of this book. He himself was seen by many after he was restored to life: he was seen to be taken up into heaven: moreover devils were cast out, and diseases healed, by his name only; and the gift of tongues was given to his disciples: which things Jesus himself promised, as signs of his kingdom. Add to this, that his sceptre, that is, the word of the gospel, came out of Sion, and, without any human assistance, extended itself to the utmost limits of the earth, by the divine power alone; and made nations and kings subject unto it, as the psalms expressly foretold. The cabalistical Jews made the son of Enoch a certain middle person betwixt God and men, who had no token of any such great power.⁷³⁷⁷³⁷   The name which the Hebrews give him is בוטטרי Metator. So the Latins call him who prepares the way for the king. Thus Lucan:—
   As harbinger to the Hesperian fields, I boldly come.
   Vegetius, book ii. says, “They were called metatores, harbingers in the camps, who went before and chose a place fit for the camp.” And thus Suidas; “Μετάτωρ, a harbinger, is a messenger, who is sent before from the prince.”—(The rabbies rather call it Metatron בומטרון, pious, concerning which see John Buxtorf’s Chaldee and Rabbinical Lexicon. Le Clerc.) How much more reasonable 226then is it for us to do it to him who gave us such instructions! Neither does this at all tend to the lessening of God the Father, from whom this power of Jesus was derived,⁷³⁸⁷³⁸   As himself confesses, John v. 19, 30, 36, 43. vi. 38, 57. xiii. 28, 49. x. 18, 29. xiv. 28, 31. xvi. 28. xx. 21. And the apostle to the Heb. v. 5. Rom. vi. 4. 1 Cor. xi. 3. and to whom it will return,⁷³⁹⁷³⁹   As the apostle confesses, 1 Cor. xv. 24. and whose honour it serves.⁷⁴⁰⁷⁴⁰   John xiii. 31. xiv. 13. Rom. xvi. 27. Therefore the Talmud, entitled concerning the council, denies Jesus to be the name of an idol; seeing the Christians in honouring him have a regard to God the Maker of the world.