be that
the testimony of two witnesses, who directly contradict each other
in the matter to be proved by them, can be received as true. But the
prophets have directed us to expect no Messiah but one born of the
seed of David.

"2. As to the works of Jesus, we object to what he said concerning
himself:--'Do not consider me as come to establish peace on
earth, for I have come to send a sword, and to separate the son
from the father, and the daughter from her mother, and the
daughter-in-law from her mother-in-law,' which words are written
in Mat. ch. x. But we find the prophecies concerning the Messiah
to attribute to him very different works from these; nay, the very
opposite. For, whereas Jesus testifies concerning himself, that he
did not come to establish peace in the earth, but 'division,' 'fire'
and 'sword,' Zechariah says, concerning the expected Messiah, ch.
ix.:--'He shall speak peace to the nations.' Jesus says he came to
send 'fire and sword' upon the earth, but Micah says, ch. ii., that in
the times of the true Messiah they shall beat their swords into
ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.'
Jesus says that he came 'to put division between the father and the
son,' &c. But in the time of the true Messiah, Elias, the prophet,
shall come, of whom Malachi prophecied 'that he shall convert the
heart of the fathers unto the children, and the heart of the children
to the fathers.' Jesus says 'that he came to serve others, not to be
served by them' - Mat. xx. 29. But of the true Messiah it is said,
Psalm lxxii.:--'All kings shall bow themselves before him, all
nations shall serve him.' The same also is said by Zechariah, ch. ix.:--
'His dominion shall be, from one sea to the other, and from the
river unto the ends of the earth;' and so Dan., ch. vii.:--'All
dominions shall serve and obey him.'

"3. As to the time, we object to the Christians, that Jesus did not
come at the time designated by the prophets; for the prophets
testify, that the coming of the Messiah should be 'in the end of
days' or, in the latter days, (which, surely, have not yet arrived) as
it is in Isaiah ch. ii.:--'It shall come to pass in the latter days, that
the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of
the mountains, and all nations shall flow unto it;' and it
immediately follows, concerning the king Messiah, 'that he shall
j