“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 judge among the nations, and rebuke many peoples, and they shall beat their words into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.’  See also Hosea, ch. iii, and also Dan., ch. ii., where it is written:—­’God hath made known unto king Nebuchadnezzar what shall come to pass in the latter days,’ (or, in the end of days.) And this pertains to what follows, viz., to this:—­’In the days of those kings, (i. e., of the kingdoms that arose out of the ruins of the Roman Empire) the God of heaven will raise up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.’  Thus you see, that the prophets predicted, that the kingdom of the Messiah should be after the destruction of the Roman Empire, not while it was in its vigour; when Jesus came; in ‘the latter days,’ and not before.*