even while they were in Egypt. It subsisted under the Afimonean princes, as it had under the government of the Judges, and Samuel, and Saul; for in the books of Maccabees there is frequent mention of the rulers and elders and council of the Jews, and of public acts and memorials in their name. It subsisted even in our Saviour's time, for in the gospels we read often of the chief priests and the fcribes and the elders of the people. Their power indeed in capital causes, especially fuch as related to the state, was abridged in some measure; they might judge, but not execute without the confent of the Roman governor, as I think we must infer from this passage, (John XVIII. 31.) Then faid Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law: the Jews therefore faid unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death. The scepter was then departing, and in about forty years afterwards it totally departed. Their city was taken, their temple was deftroyed, and they themselves were either flain with the fword, or fold for flaves. And from that time to this they have never formed one body or fociety, but have been difperfed among all nations; their tribes and genealogies have been all confounded, and they have lived without a ruler, without a lawgiver, and without fupreme authority and government in any part of the earth. And this a captivity not for feventy years, but for seventeen hundred. "Nor will they ever be able (as the learned "(1) prelate expresseth it) after all their pretences, to "show any figns or marks of the scepter among them, till "they difcover the unknown country, where never man"kind dwelt, and where the apocryphal Efdras has

placed their brethren of the ten tribes." (2 Efdras ΧΙΙΙ. 41.)

We have feen the exact completion of the former part of the prophecy, and now let us attend to that of the latter part, And unto him shall the gathering of the people be. If we understand this of Judah, that the other tribes should be gathered to that tribe, it was in some measure fulfilled by the people's going up so frequently as they did to Jerufalem, which was in the tribe of Judah, in

(1) Bishop Sherlock's Differtat. 3d. p. 351. Edit. 5.

order to obtain justice in difficult cases, and to worship God in his holy temple. Whither the tribes go up, (faith the Pfalmist CXXII. 4, 5.) the tribes of the Lord; unto the teftimony of Ifrael, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set thrones of judgment; the thrones of the house of David. Upon the divifion of the kingdoms of Ifrael and Judah, the tribe of Benjamin, and the priests and Levites, and several out of all the other tribes, (2 Chron. XI. 13, 16.) went over to Judah, and were fo blended and incorporated together, that they are more than once spoken of under the notion of one tribe: (1 Kings XI. 13, 32, 36.) and it is faid exprefly (1 Kings XII. 20.) there was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only; all the rest were swallowed up in that tribe, and confidered as parts and members of it. In like manner, when the Ifraelites were carried away captive into Affyria, it is faid (2 Kings XVII. 18.) there was none left but the tribe of Judah only: and yet we know that the tribe of Benjamin, and many of the other tribes remained too, but they are reckoned as one and the fame tribe with Judah. Nay at this very time there was a remnant of Ifrael, that escaped from the Affyrians, and went and adhered to Judah: for we find afterwards, that in the reign of Jofiah there were fome of Manaffeh and Ephraim and of the remnant of Ifrael, who contributed money to the repairing of the temple, as well as Judah and Benjamin: (2 Chron. XXXIV. 9.) and at the folemn celebration of the passover some of Ifrael were present as well as all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerufalem. When the people returned from the Babylonish captivity, then again feveral of the tribes of Ifrael associated themselves, and returned with Judah and Benjamin; and in Jerufalem dwelt of the children of Judah, and of the children of Benjamin, and of the children of Ephraim and Manaffeh. (1 Chron. IX. 3.) At so many different times, and upon fuch different occafions, the other tribes were gathered to this tribe, infomuch that Judah became the general name of the whole nation; and after the Babylonish captivity they were no longer called the people of Ifrael, but the people of Judah or Jews.

Again; if we understand this of Shiloh or the Meffiah, that the people or Gentiles should be gathered to his obedience, it is no more than is foretold in many other prophecies of fcripture; and it began to be fulfilled in Cornelius the centurion, whose converfion (Acts X.) was as I may say the first fruits of the Gentiles, and the harvest afterwards was very plenteous. In a few years the gofpel was disseminated, and took root downward, and bore fruit upward in the most considerable parts of the world then known; and in Constantine's time, when the empire became Christian, it might with fome propriety be faid, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. (Rev. XI. 15.) We ourselves were of the Gentile, but are now gathered unto Chrift.

Lastly; if we join this in construction with the words preceding until Shiloh come, two events are specified as forerunners of the scepter's departing from Judah, the coming of the Meffiah, and the gathering of the Gentiles to him; and these together point out with greater exactness the precise time of the scepter's departure. Now it is certain that before the destruction of Jerufalem, and the diffolution of the Jewish commonwealth by the Romans, the Meffiah was not only come, but great numbers likewise of the Gentiles were converted to him. The very fame thing was predicted by our Saviour himself (Matt. XXIV. 14.) This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come, the destruction of Jerufalem, and end of the Jewish constitution. The Jews were not to be cut off, till the Gentiles were graffed into the church. And in fact we find that the apostles and their companions preached the gospel in all the parts of the world then known. Their found (as St. Paul applies the saying, Rom. X. 18.) went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. And then the end came, then an end was put to the Jewish polity in church and state. The government of the tribe of Judah had fubfifted in some form or other from the death of Jacob to the last destruction of Jerufalem: but then it was utterly broken and ruined; then the scepter departed,

departed, and hath been departed ever fince. And now even the distinction of tribes is in great measure loft among them; they are all called Jews, but the tribe of Judah is fo far from bearing rule, that they know not for certain which is the tribe of Judah; and all the world is witness, that they exercise dominion no where, but every where live in fubjection.

Before we conclude, it may not be improper to add a just obfervation of the learned prelate before cited. As the tribe of Benjamin annexed itself to the tribe of Judah as its head, so it ran the fame fortune with it; they went together into captivity, they returned home together, and were both in being when Shiloh came. This also was foretold by Jacob, (ver. 27.) Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. The morning and night here can be nothing else but the (2) morning and night of the Jewish state; for this state is the fubject of all Jacob's prophecy from one end to the other: and confequently it is here foretold of Benjamin, that he should continue to the very last times of the Jewish state. This interpretation is confirmed by Mofes's prophecy, for the prophecy of Mofes is in truth an expofition of Jacob's prophecy. Benjamin, faith Mofes, (Deut. XXXIII. 12.) shall dwell in safety; the Lord shall cover him all the day long. What is this all the day long? The fame certainly as the morning and night. Does not this import a promise of a longer continuance to Benjamin, than to the other tribes? And was it not most exactly fulfilled?

:

To conclude. This prophecy and the completion of it will furnith us with an invincible argument, not only that the Messiah is come, but also that Jesus Christ is the perfon. For the scepter was not to depart from Judah, until the Meffiah should come: but the scepter hath long been departed, and confequently the Meffiah hath been long come. The fcepter departed at the

r

(2) Thus some Jewish interpreters referred to by Bochart, understood the expreffion, Mane, id eft primis Ifraelitici regni temporibus-Sub vefVOL. L.

peram, id est post captivitatis Babylonicæ tempora. Hierozoic. Pars prior. Lib. 3. Cap. 10. Col. 828.

F

final

1

final destruction of Jerufalem, and hath been departed seventeen centuries; and confequently the Meffiah came a little before that period: and if the Meffiah came a little before that period, prejudice itself cannot long make any doubt concerning the perfon. All confiderate men must say, as Simon Peter faid to Jesus, (John VI. 68, 69.) Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the Chrift, the fon of the living God.

V.

BALAAM'S PROPHECIES.

WONDERFUL as the gift of prophecy was, it

was not always confined to the chosen feed, nor yet always imparted to the best of men. God might sometimes, to convince the world of his fuperintendence and government of the world, disclose the purposes of his providence to heathen nations. He revealed himself to Abimelech, (Gen. XX.) to Pharaoh, (Gen. XLI.) and to Nebuchadnezzar, (Dan. II.) and we have no reason to deny all the marvellous stories which are related of divination among the heathens; the possibility and credibility of which is argued on both fides by Cicero in his two books of Divination, his brother Quintus asserting it in the first book, and himself labouring to disprove it in the second; but I think all unprejudiced readers must agree, that the arguments for it are stronger and better than those urged against it. Neither was there any neceffity, that the prophets should always be good men. Unworthy persons may sometimes be poffefsed of spiritual gifts as well as of natural. Aaron and Miriam, who were inspired upon some occafions, yet upon others mutinied against Mofes, and rebelled against God. Jonah for his disobedience to God was thrown into the fea. In the 13th chapter of the first book of King's