of the words, and yet to avoid the force of the testimony insisted on from them.

$33. This passage of Scripture then plainly teaches, that the political rule and national government should not absolutely and irrecoverably be taken away from the tribe of Judah, until the promised Seed should be exhibited, until the Messiah should come. It remaineth, that we also evidence that all rule, government and polity, is long since taken away from Judah, and that for many generations there hath been no such thing as a tribe of Judah, in any national or political condition or constitution in the world. And had we not here to do with men obstinate and impudent, very few words would be needed in this matter. But they must have that proved unto them, which all the world sees and knows, and takes care to make good, and which themselves, as occasion serves, confess and bewail. Is it not known to all the world, that for these last sixteen hundred years, they have been, sine Deo, sine homine rege, cast out of God's special care, and wandering up and down, without law, government, or authority of their own. They are scattered over the face of the earth, leading a precarious life under the power of kings, princes and commonwealths, as their several lots in their dispersion have fallen. And this, as I said, themselves also confess, as they have occasion. To this purpose, see Kimchi on Hosea

And these are • ואלה הם ימי הגלות שאנהנו בו היים .4 .iii

6

the days of captivity, wherein we are at this day, for we have neither king nor priest of Israel; but we are in the power of the Gentiles, and under the power of their kings and princes.' Doth this man think that sceptre and law-giver are departed from Judah or no? And the Targum of Jonathan on that place is considerable; for, saith he, The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king of the house of David, and without a ruler in Israel; afterwards the children of Israel shall repent, and seek the worship of the Lord their God, and shall obey the Messiah, the Son of David, the King.' So also are the words of Abarbinel on Isa. liii. He tells us, that in their captivity and banishment, part of their misery is, n abu

that in Israel : בישראל מלכות ולא ממשלת ולא שבט משפט

since come.

there is neither kingdom, nor rule, nor sceptre of judgment;' that is plainly sceptre and law-giver are departed. And therefore, if there be any truth in this prophecy, the Messiah is long In like manner Maimonides: From the time that we have left our own land, we have no power of making laws.' And they jointly confess, in the Talmud. Tract. Saned. that some time before the destruction of the temple, all power of judging both as unto life and death, and as unto pecuniary punishments, was taken from them. So that if there be a cer

tainty in any thing in this world, it is certain that sceptre and law-giver are long since departed from Judah.

§ 34. There are not many things wherein the present Jews do more betray the desperateness of their cause, than in their endeavour to obscure this open and known truth in a matter of fact. That which they principally insist upon, is a story out of the Itinerary of Benjamin Tudelensis.

This Benjamin was a Jew, who about five hundred years ago travelled from Europe to the eastern parts of the world, and in his Itinerary, after the manner of common travellers, he gives us an account of the state and condition of his countrymen. Among other things which he relates, fide Rabbinica, he tells us of a Jew who then had a principality at Bagdad, whom his countrymen called the Son of David, there being a thousand of them living there all in subjection unto him. This honour was allowed him by the caliph, who in those days ruled there; so that, when he passed in the streets, they cried before him, Make way for the Son of David. Fagius long since returned a proper answer to this story, in a proverb of their own, pwb rizn p, He that hath a mind to lie, let him place his witnesses at distance enough.' When Benjamin passed over those eastern parts of the world, they were greatly unknown to Europeans, and he had thence opportunity to feign what he pleased for the reputation of his nation, which opportunity he did not neglect to use. Time hath now brought truth to light. The people of Europe, especially the English and Hollanders, have some while since discovered the state of things in those parts, and can hear no tidings of Benjamin's principality, nor of his Son of David; nor could the Jews ever since get any one to confirm his relation. Besides, if all that he avers should be granted to be true, as in the main it is undoubtedly false, what would it amount to as to the matter in hand? Is this the sceptre and law-giver promised unto Judah, as the great privilege above his brethren? It seems, that an obscure unknown person in captivity at Bagdad, by the permission of a tyrant, whose slave and vassal he is, hath a pre-eminence among a thousand Jews, all slaves to the same tyrant.

And this is all that they pretend to in a, in the fortysecond story, where they give us an account of this W or w han, Prince, or Head of the Captivity, as they would have him esteemed. A rich Jew, as they would make him to be, chosen unto a presidentship by the heads or rectors of the schools of Bagdad, Sora, and Pombeditha; and they confess, that now for many ages they have chosen no such president, because the Saracens killed the last that was so chosen. And is this, I say, the continuance of the tribe and sceptre of Judah?

No: Judah must be a nation, a people in a political sense and state, dwelling in his own land, and must have rule and dominion exercised therein according to its own law, or the sceptre and law-giver are departed from it. And this they evidently are sixteen hundred years ago, and therefore the Shiloh, the promi sed Messiah, is long since come; and this is the truth, which from this testimony we intended to confirm.

EXERCITATION XIII.

1. Other testimonies proving the Messiah to be come. Hagg. ii. 3—9. Mal. iii. 1, 2. § 2. State of the people at the building of the second temple. In the days of Darius Hystaspes, not Nothus. 3. The house treated of by Haggai the second house. § 4. Proved against Abarbinel, $5. The glory promised to this house. §6. Brief summary of the glory of Solomon's temple. Its projection, § 7. Magnificence. S. Treasure spent about it. § 9. Number of workmen employed in it. § 10. Ornaments. 11. Worship. 12. Second temple compared with it. What was the glory promised to the second house. Opinion of the Jews. §13. The promise of it not conditional. The meaning of W in the text. Evasions of Abarbinel, Kimchi and Aben Ezra, examined. § 14. Their opinion of the glory promised to the second house. Of the greatness of it. Things wanting in it by their own confession. 15. The glory of this house not in the days of the Hasmoneans, or Herodians. §16. Not in its continuance. § 17-24. Circumstances proving the true Messiah to be the glory. Anomalous construction of the words removed. § 25, 26. Mal. iii. 1. explained. § 27-29. Confession of the ancient Jews.

§ 1. We shall now proceed to other proofs from the Old Tes

E

tament, which afford the same evidence, and which are of similar importance with the foregoing. The end of calling and separating the Jews from the rest of the world, of forming them into a nation, and of setting up a political state and rule amongst them, was solely, as we have declared, to bring forth the promi sed Messiah by them, and to shadow out his spiritual kingdom. It was necessary then, that he should come before their utter desolation and final rejection from their national state, which also he did according to the promise and prediction before insisted on and explained. The same was the end of their ecclesiastical or church-state, with all the religious worship that was instituted therein. While that also therefore continued, and was accepted of God in Jerusalem, the place of his own appointment, Messiah was to be brought forth, and to accomplish his work in the world. This is foretold in sundry other places of the Old Testament; one or two of the most eminent of these we shall consider, and manifest from them, that the true Messiah is long since come, and exhibited unto the world, according to the promise given of old to that purpose. The first we shall fix upon is that of Haggai, ch. ii. 39. unto which we shall add, Mal. iii. I. The words of the former place are, "Who

is left among you, that saw this house in her first glory, and how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: And I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts; and the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of hosts: And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts." Those of the latter are, "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the Messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in, behold he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." Both to the same purpose.

§ 2. The occasion of the former words must be inquired after, from the story of those times in Ezra, and from the whole discourse of the prophet in that place. The people who had returned from their captivity with Zerubbabel, in the days of Cyrus, had laid the foundation of the temple; but having begun their work, they met with much discouragement, from the great opposition which was made to it. Thus indeed it will happen to all men, who engage in the work of God in any generation. The kings of Persia who first encouraged them unto this work, and countenanced them in it, Ezra i. 7-9. being influenced by false reports and slanders, as is usual also in such cases, at first began to withdraw their assistance, as it should seem, in the days of Cyrus himself, Ezra. iv. 5. and at length expressly forbade their proceedings, causing the whole work to cease by force and power, ver. 23. Besides this outward opposition, they were moreover greatly discouraged by their own poverty and inability for the carrying on their designed work in any measure, so as to answer the beauty and glory of their for mer house built by Solomon. Hence the elders of the peo ple who had seen the former house in its glory, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundations of this laid, Ezra iv. 12, . 13. They foresaw how much the splendour and beauty of their worship would be impaired; for as the dimensions assigned to the fabric itself by Cyrus, Ezra. vi. 3. did no way answer Solomon's structure, so for the ornaments of it, wherein its magnificence did principally consist, they had no means or ability to make any suitable provision for these. Being therefore thus hindered and discouraged, the work ceased wholly from the end of the reign of Cyrus, unto the second year of Darius Hystaspes. For there is no reason to suppose that this interruption of the work continued unto the reign of Darius Nothus. Between the first year of the whole empire of Cyrus, to the second of