If I had in no wise heard of the Messiah, nevertheless, after such wonderful
predictions of the course of the world which I see fulfilled, I see that He
is divine. And, if I knew that these same books foretold a Messiah, I should
be sure that He would come; and seeing that they place His time before the
destruction of the second temple, I should say that He had come.
735. Prophecies.--That the Jews would reject Jesus Christ, and would be
rejected of God, for this reason, that the chosen vine brought forth only
wild grapes. That the chosen people would be fruitless, ungrateful, and
unbelieving, populum non credentem et contradicentem.141 That God would
strike them with blindness, and in full noon they would grope like the
blind; and that a forerunner would go before Him.
736. Transfixerunt.[142] Zech. 12:10.
That a deliverer should come, who would crush the demon's head, and free His
people from their sins, ex omnibus iniquitatibus;[143] that there should be
a New Covenant, which would be eternal; that there should be another
priesthood after the order of Melchisedek, and it should be eternal; that
the Christ should be glorious, mighty, strong, and yet so poor that He would
not be recognised, nor taken for what He is, but rejected and slain; that
His people who denied Him should no longer be His people; that the idolaters
should receive Him, and take refuge in Him; that He should leave Zion to
reign in the centre of idolatry; that nevertheless the Jews should continue
for ever; that He should be of Judah, and when there should be no longer a
king.
SECTION XII: PROOFS OF JESUS CHRIST
737. Therefore I reject all o