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 scribes and the elders of the people. Their power indeed in capital causes, especially such as related to the state, was abridged in some measure; they might judge, but not execute without the consent of the Roman governor, as I think we must infer from this passage, (John xviii. 31:) "Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law : the Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death." The sceptre was then departing, and in about forty years afterwards it totally departed. Their city was taken, their teraple was destroyed, and they themselves were either slain with the sword, or sold for slaves. And from that time to this they have never formed one body or society, but have been dispersed among all nations; their tribes and genealogies have been all confounded, and they have lived without a ruler, without a lawgiver, and without supreme authority and government in any part of the earth. And this a captivity not for seventy years, but for seventeen hundred. • Nor will they ever be able, (as the learned 1prelate expresseth it,) after all their pretences, to show any signs or marks of the sceptre among them, till they discover the unknown country, where never mankind dwelt, and where the apocryphal Esdras has placed their brethren of the ten tribes.' (2 Esd. xiii. 41.)

We have seen 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 Jerusalem, which was in the tribe of Judah, in order to obtain justice in difficult cases, and to worship God in his holy temple. "Whither the tribes go up, (saith the Psalmist, cxxii. 4, 5,) the tribes of the Lord; unto the testimony of Israel, 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 division of the kingdoms of Israel 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 so 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 said expressly, (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 considered as parts and Bishop Sherlock's Dissertat. 3d, p. 351, Edit. 5.

members of it. In like manner, when the Israelites were carried away captive into Assyria, it is said, (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 same tribe as Judah. Nay at this very time there was a remnant of Israel, that escaped from the Assyrians, and went and adhered to Judah for we find afterwards, that in the reign of Josiah there were some "of Manasseh and Ephraim and of the remnant of Israel," who contributed money to the repairing of the temple, as well as "Judah and Benjamin," (2 Chron. xxxiv. 9;) and at the solemn celebration of the passover some "of Israel were present as well as all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem." When the people returned from the Babylonish captivity, then again several of the tribes of Israel associated themselves, and returned with Judah and Benjamin; "and in Jerusalem dwelt of the children of Judah, and of the children of Benjamin, and of the children of Ephraim and Manasseh," (1 Chron. ix. 3.) At so many different times, and upon such different occasions, the other tribes were gathered to this tribe, insomuch that Judah became the general name of the whole nation; and after the Babylonish captivity, they were no longer called the people of Israel, but the people of Judah or Jews.

Again; if we understand this of Shiloh or the Messiah, that the people or Gentiles should be gathered to his obedience, it is no more than is foretold in many other prophecies of Scripture; and it began to be fulfilled in Cornelius the centurion, whose conversion (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 gospel 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 some propriety be said, "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 Gentiles, but are now gathered unto Christ.

Lastly, if we join this in construction with the words preceding "until Shiloh come," two events are specified as forerunners of the sceptre's departing from Judah, the coming of the Messiah, and the gathering of the Gentiles to him; and these together point out with greater exactness the precise time of the sceptre's departure. Now it is certain that before the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dissolution of the Jewish commonwealth by the Romans, the Messiah was not only come, but great numbers likewise of the Gentiles were converted to him. The very same thing was predicted by our Sa

H

viour 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 Jerusalem, 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 sound, (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 subsisted in some form or other from the death of Jacob to the last destruction of Jerusalem: but then it was utterly broken and ruined; then the sceptre departed, and hath been departed ever since. And now even the distinction of tribes is in great measure lost among them; they are all called Jews, but the tribe of Judah is so 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 subjection.

Before we conclude it may not be improper to add a just observation 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 same 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 morning and night of the Jewish state; for this state is the subject of all Jacob's prophecy from one end to the other; and consequently it is here foretold of Benjamin, that he should continue to the very last times of the Jewish state. This interpretation is confirmed by Moses's prophecy, for the prophecy of Moses is in truth an exposition of Jacob's prophecy. "Benjamin (saith Moses, Deut. xxxiii. 12) shall dwell in safety; the Lord shall cover him all the day long." What is this all the day long? The same 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 furnish us with an invincible argument, not only that the Messiah is come, but also that Jesus Christ is the person. For the sceptre was not to depart from Judah, until the Messiah should

2 Thus some Jewish interpreters referred to by Bochart understood the expression: Mane, id est, primis Israelitici regni tem

poribus-Sub vesperam, id est, post captivitatis Babylonicæ tempora.' Hierozoic. pars prior, 1. 3, c. 10, col. 828.

come but the sceptre hath long been departed, and consequently the Messiah hath been long come. The sceptre departed at the final destruction of Jerusalem, and hath been departed seventeen centuries; and consequently the Messiah came a little before that period: and if the Messiah came a little before that period, prejudice itself cannot long make any doubt concerning the person. All considerate men must say as Simon Peter said 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 Christ, the Son of the living God."

V.-BALAAM'S PROPHECIES.

WONDERFUL as the gift of prophecy was, it was not always confined to the chosen seed, nor yet always imparted to the best of men. God might sometimes, to convince the world of his superintendence 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 sides 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 necessity that the prophets should always be good men. Unworthy persons may sometimes be possessed of spiritual gifts as well as of natural. Aaron and Miriam, who were inspired upon some occasions, yet upon others mutinied against Moses, and rebelled against God. Jonah for his disobedience to God was thrown into the sea. In the 13th chapter of the first book of Kings we read of two prophets, the one a liar and afterwards inspired, the other inspired and afterwards disobedient to the word of the Lord. Yea, our Saviour himself hath assured us, (Matt. vii. 22, 23,) that in the last day many will say unto him, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? and yet will he profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me ye that work iniquity."

Balaam was a remarkable instance of both kinds, both of a prophet who was an heathen, and of a prophet who was an immoral man. He came from "Aram, " or " Mesopotamia, out of the mountains of the east," (Numb. xxiii. 7; Deut. xxiii. 4:)

and the east was infamous for soothsayers and diviners, (Is. ii. 6.) However, he was a worshipper of the true God, (as were also Melchizedek, and Job, and others of the heathen nations,) and this appears by his applying to God, (Numb. xxii. 8,) “Í will bring you word again, as the Lord shall speak unto me;" and by his calling the Lord his God, (ver. 18,) "I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more." But his worship was mixed and debased with superstition, as appears by his building "seven altars," and sacrificing on each altar (Numb. xxiii. 1, 2,) and by his going "to seek for enchantments," whatever they were, (Numb. xxiv. 1.) He appears too to have had some pious thoughts and resolutions, by declaring "I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more;" and by so earnestly wishing "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his," (xxiii. 10.) But his heart was unsound, was mercenary, was corrupt; he "loved the wages of unrighteousness," (2 Pet. ii. 15,) and “ran greedily after rewards," (Jude 11.:) his inclinations were contrary to his duty; he was ordered to stay, but yet he wished to go; he was commanded to bless, but yet he longed to curse; and when he found that he was overruled, and could do the people no hurt as a prophet, he still contrived to do it as a politician, and "taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication," (Rev. ii. 14.) So that he was indeed a strange mixture of a man; but so is every man more or less. There are inconsistencies and contradictions in every character, though not so great perhaps and notorious as in Balaam. If he is called a soothsayer in one part of Scripture, (Josh. xiii. 22,) in another part he is called a prophet, (2 Pet. ii. 16:) and his name must have been in high credit and estimation, that the king of Moab and the elders of Midian should think it worth their while to send two honourable embassies to him at a considerable distance, to engage him to come and curse the people of Israel. It was a superstitious ceremony in use among the heathens to devote their enemies to destruction at the beginning of their wars, as if the gods would enter into their passions, and were as unjust and partial as themselves. The Romans had public officers to perform the ceremony, and 1 Macrobius hath preserved the form of these execrations. Now Balaam being a prophet of great note and eminence, it was believed that he was more intimate than others with the heavenly powers, and consequently that his imprecations would be more effectual; for as Balak said unto him, (Numb. xxii. 6,) "I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou` cursest is cursed."

1 Saturnal. 1. 3. c. 9.