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Nay, there is something further, deserves to be taken notice of, as being very fingular, in that of Judah; and one ought here to confider a mystery of God's providence, and admire the wisdom of his conduct, in pursuing the design which Moses first sets down, and upon which one fees that the whole Jewish state was formed; for when God resolved that the Messiah should descend from the tribe of Judah, and the house of David, he made it more particularly known and diftinguished than any other family in the whole nation, and for that reason he sets David upon the throne.

Every one knows, that in every kingdom the genealogy of a king, and of the royal family, is, of all others, the most publicly known. Now, if the blood-royal alone is always diftinguished, how much more must it be so, when that fupreme dignity is conferred upon such a family, as God had particularly chosen, to have the Meffiah, who is set forth as the defire of all nations, to be born out of it !

From hence I will boldly conclude, that the only end for which God raised David's family to the throne, was because the Meffiah was really to be born out of that family, reduced to a low and private condition, which Ifaiah foretold, saying, That a rod should come forth out of the flem of Jelle, and a branch grow out of his roots (f); and in another place, That he should grow up as a root out of a dry ground (g); which was very agreeable to the character of a Prophet, and to the low ftate of humiliation in which our Saviour was to appear in the world.

A Solution of fome Difficulties in these Genealogies.

INDEED the difperfion of the ten tribes seems to be a very natural I objection, to those who would difpute the reflexions which I have already made upon these genealogies.

But after all, there is nothing in it but what confirms the more the faid reflexions.

And we may say, that the entire dispersion of the whole tribe of Ephraim, and of the others which adhered to it in Jeroboam's rebellion, is a mystery of providence which challenges our admiration, as much as the raifing up that family to the throne, out of which the Meffiah was to be born.

To apprehend this the better, we need only call to mind the pretenfions of the tribe of Ephraim: this Ephraim was the younger brother of Manaffeh; but Jacob had given him the birthright, just as Ifaac before had given it to Jacob, though it did of right belong to the elder brother. Jacob had particularly blessed Ephraim, and even made it a form of bleffing for after-ages, as we read in the book of Ruth, that there was

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one made for Pharez. Jacob had given to Jofeph two portions in the land of Canaan, and Ephraim had the birthright before Manaffeh, by God's order: it was then very natural for the tribe of Ephraim, as all tribes did apply to themselves the several privileges promised to their respective heads, to look upon themselves as having a particular right to God's bleffing.

And they thought this right of theirs was plainly made out, as by Jofeph's dreams, so especially by the words of that prediction which Ja. cob gave in favour of Ephraim, the words of which ran so very high, that after fuch a prejudice, there might very well be a fair pretence for the hope which the tribe of Ephraim had once to fee a Messiah come out of their tribe, as those of Judah expected one out of theirs.

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If to all this we add, that Jeroboam's rebellion was authorised by a prophetical inspiration, and by a special sign of God's approbation; and that on the other hand he defired to propose to his people the two calves which he fet up in Dan and Bethel, as symbols of the Deity, only to pursue the ideas of Pharaoh's dreams, which Jofeph interpreted, the representation whereof did clearly shew both the greatness of Jofeph, and the particular care of God's providence over him (b); it was then natural to the men of Ephraim, to feed themselves with fuch hopes, as the Jews teach us they did, when, even to this very day, they speak of a Meffiah of the tribe of Ephraim.

What did God then do, to obviate these pretenfions of the tribe of Ephraim? He dispersed them, together with the other nine tribes that fubmitted to the authority of its kings, and so confounded them with all those tribes which followed their fortune, that, though there should be still fome Ephraimites in the world, yet it would be impoffible for any of them to justify his pedigree so clearly, as that any Messiah really defcended from that very tribe, could, by establishing his genealogy, put his being of the tribe of Ephraim beyond all conteft.

Now, according to this notion of things, it is visible (if we may be allowed to enter into the counsels of God) that he did particularly preferve the tribes of Levi and Benjamin, with the tribe of Judah, which was the only tribe that was to be preserved ofnecessity.

First, because, as St. Paul to the Hebrews observes, there was nothing ever faid, as to the Meffiah, of the tribe of Levi.

Secondly, because God would, by that means, confound the more effectually all the claims of the tribe of Ephraim.

For, in short, if the tribe of Ephraim was invested by God with the kingdom over nine tribes of the people of Ifrael, so had the tribe of Benjamin been raifed up before to the fovereignty over all Ifrael, over the tribe of Judah, and even that of Ephraim itself.

If the tribe of Ephraim was defcended from a younger brother, to whom Jacob had given his bleffing, in prejudice of Manaffeh his elder brother, (which is confiderable, because God hath almost constantly preferred the younger before the elder) so the tribe of Benjamin was descended from him that was both the younger brother of Joseph himself, and the youngest of all Jacob's children; notwithstanding which, the tribe of Benjamin

(b) Talm. in Succa, c. 5. in Gem.

Benjamin did freely yield to the tribe of Judah, and granted that the glory of giving birth to the Meffiah, was wholly due to them.

Be it as it will, there are two reflexions more which must be made concerning these genealogies, which appear very natural in this place. The first is, that both St. Matthew and St. Luke do begin their Gof

pel with the genealogy of the Messiah.

The other is, that some time after St. Paul condemns the study of genealogies, which was still much in use among the Jews, as vain. Why therefore is there such a different conduct amongst the disciples of the fame master?

Certainly, whoever shall confider with attention the grounds which I have laid down before, must acknowledge, that both St. Matthew, and St. Luke, ought to have begun their books, as they have done, with the genealogy of the Meffiah.

For, first of all, it was necessary that the descent of the Meffiah from Abraham by David, should be clearly made out: it was requifite therefore that they should fet down such a genealogy as was known by the whole Jewish nation: now this they have done with very great care; and the thing was so easy, and so well known, that even a blind man of the neighbourhood of Samaria, the chief city of the kings of Ephraim, did publicly call Jefus the son of David.

But, on the other fide, St. Paul's forbidding the study of genealogies, does not at all contradict the method of those two Evangelifts.

In short, he pursues the very fame notions: he saw, that the converted Jews applied themselves to the study of genealogies, which was then so great a part of the study of their nation: it is still practised among the Jews to that degree, that since their dispersion they gave an exact retion of all the Doctors and Rabbies amongst them who have preserved the tradition, and who were proselites of justice (i). What therefore was to be done in this case? He took it for granted, that God had engaged every few to study his own pedigree with care, for no other end but only to have that of the Messiah distinctly known whenever he should come.

But the use of these genealogies being once over, by the Meffiah's coming into the world, he observes, with reason, that it was no longer necessary to keep up the vain study of all those genealogies.

So that we fee he speaks against the study of pedigrees, much upon the fame grounds as in other places he inveighs against circumcifion; for fince the chiefest use of genealogies, as well as of circumcifion, was to diftinguish Abraham's posterity from the rest of mankind, till the Meffiah was come, the use of these two observations was naturally to ceafe after he was once come.

It is, no doubt, for the fame reason, that whereas the Jews in the Apoftle's time took great care, upon all occafions, to take notice of the tribe from which they were descended, as well as to fet down the names of their fathers; yet one fees that the Apostles did not all affect it. And if St. Paul mentions his being a Benjamite, it was for a particular reason; for otherwise, as he preached down the distinction betwixt Feros

(i) Maimon. Præf. ad Jad. Chazaka.

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Feros and Gentiles, so he declared himself with the fame earnestness against the diftinctions which were observed amongst their tribes.

That the Manner whereby the Law of MOSES fixed the People of ISRAEL to the Land of CANAAN, was to keep them separated from other Nations.

NE of the chiefeft means which God made use of to diftinguish his people of Ifrael from the rest of mankind, was so to fix their affections upon the land of Canaan, that they should look upon it as a country which belonged to them by a particular conceffion from God, which derogated from the Canaanites right, to whom that country fell in the divifion of the earth that was made amongst the children of Noah, or which re-established the posterity of Shem in their just rights, to whom, if we may credit the ancient tradition, related by St. Epiphanius (k), this country did really belong by virtue of that divifion amongst the three fons of Noah, though afterwards they were driven out of it by the posterity of Ham.

Mofes feems to have expressed this truth, when he faith, Gen. xii. that when Abraham came to Canaan, the Canaanite was already in the land; that is, he had already invaded it: neither can we refer what he relates in the xivth chapter, concerning the war which the kings from the east came to make againft the king of Sodom and Gomorrha, to any thing else. It was then, for this reason, that long before Mofes's time, God took Abraham out of Chaldea, from amongst Shem's pofterity, to bring him into Ganaan amongst the Hivites, the Amorites, and other nations all equally defcended from Ham, whom God had cursed.

God could have placed Abraham any where elfe; but he chose to bring him into a country which the pofterity of Ham had feized upon already, rather than into a place poffefsed by the pofterity of Japhet, on purpose that the jealousy might be the greater betwixt Abraham and the inhabitants of the country into which God had brought him.

Nevertheless, God did not give him at first an entire possession, but only promifed him that his pofterity should enjoy it, and in the mean while invested him, beforehand, with a right to it, by the purchase of a field for a burying-place, wherein his wife, himself, and his children, were buried; by which means he strongly fixed his own mind, and the hopes of his pofterity.

In short, it is evident, that all the glory which Jacob found in Egypt, when he was invited thither by Jofeph, did not make him forget the right which he claimed upon that land, by virtue of the fepulchre both of his father and grandfather, that was there. For Mofes informs us, that he defired to be carried thither after his death, and that he did expressly require

(4) Hæref. Ixvi. n. 84.

quire this duty from Jofeph and his other children, who paid it in so very folemn a manner, and with a mourning so very great and famous, that the name of Abel-Mizraim continued to that very place where the Canaanites faw the folemnization of that funeral by the fons of Jacob, who were attended by great numbers of Egyptians.

One fees that Jacob's children still entertained the fame hope: Jofepb solemnly engaged his children to carry his bones into the land of Canaan: and one may judge that the other Patriarchs were not less folicitous to require the fame office at the hands of their children, as St. Stephen (1) supposes it, Atts vii. agreeably to the common opinion of the Jews: all which shews, that Abraham's pofterity had their hearts fet upon his fepulchre, as upon the pledge and security of God's promise, that they should be once possessed of that land where he was buried.

And as the carrying the body of Jacob into Canaan, fufficiently thewed what were the claims of the Ifraelites; so the fame was very evident by - their care in keeping themselves unmixed with the Egyptians, all the time they sojourned in Egypt. The splendor of Jofeph was a natural engagement for them to fettle themselves there for ever: befides, their vast increase forced them in a manner to it. For a long time the miseries which they endured, invited them to feek the alliances of the Egyptians by marriages, and to mix themselves with a people who were their masters, and so to renounce hopes which appeared to be so very groundless. They seemed to have been warranted by Joseph's example, who had married an Egyptian. However, one never finds that they tried that method. One fees on the contrary, that there was little correfpondence between the Hebrews and Egyptians in their facred things: for the Hebrews facrificed to God the abomination of the Egyptians, that is, those very things which the Egyptians worshipped.

One fees afterwards, by the great number of flocks which they drove along with them at their going out of Egypt, that they had continued to follow the profeffion of their ancestors, who were shepherds, a very odious employment to the Egyptians.

One fees at last, that after the many miracles which Mofes wrought in the Egyptian court, this people followed God's conduct, and went out of that country, to poffefs the land of Canaan, which none of them had ever feen; and yet they looked upon the obtaining it as a bleffing they could not miss of.

There are several things very remarkable upon that subject.

The first is, that some Egyptians went out with the Ifraelites to dwell with them in the land of Canaan; which was done, not only that there might be some indisputable witnefles, from among the enemies of God, of the truth and greatness of the miracles which Mofes had wrought amongst them, which also was a presage of the calling of the Gentiles to the faith, by their infertion into the body of the Jews; but alfo that there might be some witnesses, of the extraordinary affection which the people of Hrael had for the land of Canaan, and of their claims to it by virtue of God's promise, that he would put them into poffeffion of it. For other. wife it is not a common thing that a colony of flaves should be suffered to run away, much less that they should perfuade their masters to forsake

(1) Jalkut, ex Siphre. fol. 311. col. 2.