the time of the circumcision of the infant Saviour, "there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel,* and the Holy Ghost was upon him." (c. ii. 25.) When John the Baptist commenced preaching a few years later, the same Evangelist records that "the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ (ie., the Messiah, as the words bear the same meaning,) or not." (c. iii. 15.) So does St. John mention that "the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him (John the Baptist) Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ." (c. i. 19, 20.) And so strongly were the people impressed with the Divine mission of Christ, and that He was indeed the very Messiah, whose coming had been so long predicted, that the same evangelist relates that the five thousand whom Christ miraculously fed with five barley loaves and two small fishes, "when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world." (c. vi. 14.) And had not our Lord removed himself from the midst of them, it appears that the people were prepared "to take him by force, and make him a king." Moreover, the behaviour of the people at Christ's entry into Jerusalem, a few days before his crucifixion, when they cried, "Hosanna! blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord" (John xii. 13), sufficiently declares their desire and expectation.

We may not inappropriately introduce here the testimony of the two great Jewish authorities, who lived about the time of the first Advent, respecting the promised Shiloh, which is of a peculiar value, as there is no reason to suppose that either of them were converts to the religion of Christ. Philo, surnamed Judæus, in order to distinguish him from several others of the same name, a distinguished Alexandrian Jew, born, as is supposed, about twenty-five years B.C., comments on Exod. xxiii. 20, where the angel of God, i.e., Christ, is spoken of, to this effect: "God

An expression referring to the Messiah, who was known amongst the pious Jews by this character. Lightfoot says, that "the whole nation waited for the consolation of Israel; insomuch that there was nothing more common with them than to swear by the desire which they had of seeing it-as Simeon Ben Shetah, So let me see the consolation, if thou hast not shed innocent blood.'" (Lightfoot's Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations upon St. Luke.)

God, who should punish the wicked, despise him if he came ? The prophets say that he who is to come is great and a Prince and Lord of all the earth, and of all the nations and of armies." (Orig: Con: Cels: 1. i. p. 61.) And earlier than any of these writers, one of the Sybilline oracles, in the year that Pompey took Jerusalem (B.c. 63), had declared "that nature was about to bring forth a king to the Romans," which so terrified the Senate that they made a decree "that none born that year should be educated," as Suetonius (Vit: Aug:) tells us, adding, "those whose wives were with child applied the prophecy to themselves." And Appian, Plutarch, Sallust, and Cicero, all say that it was this prophecy of the Sybils which stirred up Cornelius Lentulus at that time, hoping, as he did, that he was the man designed for this predicted king.

In the Evangelists, frequent mention is made of the events which prove how very general was the expectation amongst the Jews of the Messiah's appearing at the time when Jesus Christ was born into the world. It is recorded by St. Luke, that at

The Sybilline books or oracles appear to have been of two kinds. Those brought by Tarquin, and burnt with the capitol in the time of Sylla; and these, Livy states, contained nothing but idolatry and superstition. After the rebuilding of the capitol, there were others brought from Erithræa by the three ambassadors deputed for that purpose; and afterwards others were sent by Augustus, as Tacitus relates, when quoting the Emperor Tiberius' rebuke of Gallus, for allowing the introduction of many spurious pieces without the examination of competent judges, that " Augustus had appointed a certain day by which, whoever had any such books, should bring them to the prætor, forbidding any to keep them after that time; that the same thing had been practised after burning the capitol in the Italian war, when they sent everywhere to seek the books of the Sybils, whether one or more, commanding all the priests to use their utmost diligence to distinguish the spurious from the true." (Annal: vi. 12.) Suetonius, in Vit: Aug: tells us that Augustus burnt a great number of those books, and only preserved such as were well authenticated. St. Augustine, in his "Citie of God," records this remarkable circumstance concerning the Sybilline oracles, that "in those days (viz., at the time of the building of Rome) Sybille, of Erithræa, wrote some apparent prophecies concerning Christ, which we have read in bad Latin verses, not corresponding to the Greek, as the interpreter, though subsequently well skilled, was not the best of poets. For Haccianus, a learned and eloquent man (one who had been a Pro-consul), having a conference with us concerning Christ, showed us a Greek book, saying they were this Sybil's verses, wherein in one place he showed us some verses so arranged that the first letter of every verse being taken, they all made these words—

Ἰησους Χριστός Θεόν θιος σωτὴρ.

Jesus Christus Dei Filius Salvator.

Jesus Christ, Son of God, the Saviour."-(Lib. xviii. c. 23.)

the time of the circumcision of the infant Saviour, "there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel,* and the Holy Ghost was upon him." (c. ii. 25.) When John the Baptist commenced preaching a few years later, the same Evangelist records that "the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ (ie., the Messiah, as the words bear the same meaning,) or not." (c. iii. 15.) So does St. John mention that "the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him (John the Baptist) Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ." (c. i. 19, 20.) And so strongly were the people impressed with the Divine mission of Christ, and that He was indeed the very Messiah, whose coming had been so long predicted, that the same evangelist relates that the five thousand whom Christ miraculously fed with five barley loaves and two small fishes, "when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world." (c. vi. 14.) And had not our Lord removed himself from the midst of them, it appears that the people were prepared "to take him by force, and make him a king." Moreover, the behaviour of the people at Christ's entry into Jerusalem, a few days before his crucifixion, when they cried, "Hosanna! blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord" (John xii. 13), sufficiently declares their desire and expectation.

We may not inappropriately introduce here the testimony of the two great Jewish authorities, who lived about the time of the first Advent, respecting the promised Shiloh, which is of a peculiar value, as there is no reason to suppose that either of them were converts to the religion of Christ. Philo, surnamed Judæus, in order to distinguish him from several others of the same name, a distinguished Alexandrian Jew, born, as is supposed, about twenty-five years B.C., comments on Exod. xxiii. 20, where the angel of God, i.e., Christ, is spoken of, to this effect: "God

* An expression referring to the Messiah, who was known amongst the pious Jews by this character. Lightfoot says, that "the whole nation waited for the consolation of Israel; insomuch that there was nothing more common with them than to swear by the desire which they had of seeing it—as Simeon Ben Shetah, So let me see the consolation, if thou hast not shed innocent blood.'" (Lightfoot's Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations upon St. Luke.)

as the shepherd and king conducts all things according to law and righteousness, having established over them his right word, his only begotten Son, who, as the viceroy of the Great King, takes care of and ministers to this sacred flock. For it is somewhere said, Behold I am, and I will send my angel before thy face, to keep thee in the way." (De Agricultura, Mangey's Edition, vol. i. 308.) So Josephus, the great historian of the Jews, who was born about sixty years later than Philo, when relating the history of Pontius Pilate's government of Judea, says, "Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the gentiles. This was the Christ. (OXpiros ouтos nv.) And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the Divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day."* (Antiq: 1. xviii. iii. 3.)

The genuineness of the above passage from Josephus has been disputed, but, we believe, unjustly, as it is found in all the copies of Josephus' works now extant, whether printed or MSS., in the Hebrew translation preserved in the Vatican library, which Cardinal Baronius (Annales Ecclesiastici, ad annum 134) notices was marked with an obelus, and which could only have been done by a Jew, and in an Arabic version, preserved by the Maronites of Mount Libanus. The passage is cited by Eusebius, Jerome, Rufinus (the opponent of Jerome), and many other Greek, Syrian, and Egyptian authors of the fourth and fifth centuries, all of whom had doubtless seen various MSS. of times previous to their own, which are not now extant. This is sufficient to satisfy us that there are no just grounds for doubting the genuineness of the passage, where the Jewish historian bears testimony to the existence and crucifixion of Christ. (For a fuller investigation of the matter, see Horne's Introduction to the Scriptures, vol. i. App. vii.) The above passage is also to be met with word for word (p. 63) in that marvellous forgery of the pretended Joseph Gorionides, which assumes to be the history of the Jews, similar to that of the true Josephus. The copy in the author's possession bears the following title and date:-"A compendious and most marueilous Historie of the latter tymes of the Jewes Commonweale, written in Hebrewe by Joseph Ben Gorion, a noble man of the same countrey, who saw the most thinges hymselfe, and was authour and doer of a great part of the same. Translated into Englyshe by Peter Morwyng, of Magdalen Colledge in Oxforde, 1567." Notwithstanding this claim to antiquity, it has been irresistibly proved by Scaliger, Fabricius, Basnage, &c., that it is a forgery of a much later date, probably about the tenth century.

Nor were the Samaritans behind the Jews in their expectation concerning the promised Messiah, as we may gather from the reply of the woman of Samaria to Christ, at Jacob's Well. "The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he." (John iv. 25-6.) And it is worthy of note that Josephus records a rising of a Samaritan impostor, a few years after the crucifixion, which appears to have met with a brief success through this general expectation of both Jews and Samaritans, until Pontius Pilate sent a detachment of soldiers, who slew some, and dispersed the others, taking a great number of prisoners, the chief of whom Pilate sentenced to death. (Antiq: 1. xviii. v. 1.)

It will be fitting, then, to enter into a consideration of some of the reasons which caused this general expectation amongst the Jews respecting the first Advent of the Saviour.

There were two famous prophecies in the Old Testament, out of the many that referred to the event, which doubtless gave rise to this feeling on the part of the nation at large, as well as to the favoured Simeon, when waiting for "the consolation of Israel," for they alone afforded some clue upon which such expectation could be grounded.

I. The prophecy which the dying Jacob left with his children clearly pointed to an event of great national importance respecting the time when they were to look for the promised Messiah, who was to bruise the serpent's head. "Judah is a lion's whelp.... ...The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be."† (Gen. xlix. 9, 10.)

The first writer who has expressly mentioned this work with the name of Josippon Ben Gorion, and quoted authorities from it, is Rabbi Solomon Jarchi, who flourished circa A.D. 1140. We have quoted it in order to show that a Jewish forger, while he evidently stole the passage from the real historian Josephus, proved thereby that he did not doubt its genuineness.

* There is a very striking proof of the accomplishment of this prophecy, viz., that at the time of our Saviour's birth, the sceptre had departed from Judah-in the objection which Julian the Apostate unwittingly brought against our blessed Lord's title of Christ or king, "that he was born a subject to Cæsar." (Julian apud Cyril, lib. vi. p. 213. Ed. Spanheim.)

The Jews, in order to avoid the application of this prophecy to Jesus Christ, interpret the word 1 which is translated "sceptre," in a very singular manner. They say it means staff or rod, and is intended to signify that" afflictions shall not depart from the Jews until the Messiah comes,' arguing that as they are still under affliction, therefore the Messiah is not come,