seed after thee, for an everlasting possession.". Gen. xlviii. 4. The gentiles here do not only contradict Abraham and Isaac, but also Jacob. In one place, Jacob says, the land is given to his seed for ever; and in the next, he says, the sceptre is to depart both of them cannot be true.

Here I may ask this question of a learned man of the gentiles; the Lord promised the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and you will say the sceptre departed from Judah: can these two questions be true or not; You will say, they must be both true, because they are the word of God but the question will be, how will you reconcile these two passages? You have no other way to reconcile them, except you say the land was promised conditionally; and if you say so, you speak the truth, for so it was conditionally. The condition was, that Israel shall have the land, but they must observe the law of God: but Israel did not observe; the land was again taken away from them, now 1746 years.

"Ye

THE LAND OF CANAAN CONDITIONALLY.shall therefore keep my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land whither I bring you to dwell therein, spew you not out. Levit. xx. 22. "The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, &c. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book." Deut. xxviii. 36, 58. Here you may learn that to have the land of Canaan always depended on the law. And next you may observe, that the sceptre is the land, and the land is the sceptre; for, so long as

any nation has a country of their own, they also have a sceptre; but, when their country is taken away, both of them must be lost together. And, lastly, it cannot here be said that the Messiah is come because the sceptre has departed from Judah: for here it is already proved, that the land and sceptre were conditionally given; and therefore the land and sceptre were taken away when Israel did not observe the law; and, if there is no law, there is no land nor sceptre. And by this proof it is clearly shewn that the Messiah is not yet

come.

* THE TRUE EXPLANATION OF THIS PROPHECY. -Jacob said to his sons, "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah;" that is, the king over all Israel shall be always out of the tribe of Judah, and as long as Israel shall obey the law, the sceptre shall remain in the nation, even until Shiloh come; which is to say, although the king over Israel should have no power over any other nation, yet Israel shall remain always a nation, and be governed by their own king, even until Shiloh come; and, when Shiloh shall come, then he will not be king over Israel only, but over all nations. But, if Israel will not keep the law, then the land will be taken away from them, then they will have no land, nor a king; but its departure shall not be for ever, for there is an appointed time for Shiloh, when he is to come, and then * the kingdom shall be restored to Israel, and all these words recorded here shall come to pass.

In one of the sub-drawings, 2 Kings xxv, we are told that the king and people, and the land, fell together, and both king and people went together into captivity; and in the same manner

as they went out into captivity, even in the same manner they will return; and this we can prove, that when Shiloh shall come he shall not come alone by himself, but in the head of all Israel: and so it is written in another of the sub-drawings, "The breaker is come up before them they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them." Micah ii. 13.

*THE ARGUMENT OF THE GENTILES THAT THE SCEPTRE HAS DEPARTED FROM JUDAH-considering that Shiloh is come already. Take notice what I shall say here: they say that Jesus was the son of David, and that he was Shiloh; the question will be, when did the sceptre depart? If he was king over Israel, then the sceptre never departed, nay not even one day, for he was king of Judah, and the son of David, and in the nation of Israel, and in the land of Canaan: is not this a clear proof that the sceptre never departed?

Here the reader will be surprised to see that the whole of their argument is merely nothing; for, if they say it is departed, it is false, and they only contradict themselves; because, according to their own statement, it has never departed yet; but if they say it is not departed, even this cannot be true, because the whole world know it is departed?

QUESTION. WAS ABRAHAM IGNORANT OF THE COMING OF SHILOH ?-What Jacob knew, Isaac knew; and Abraham also knew that Shiloh was to come. It is recorded in the drawing in Genesis xiv, that war will commence among the sons of Adam, and so it came to pass.

THE BATTLE OF THE FOUR KINGS WITH ABRAHAM.-When these four kings had taken Lot prisoner, Abraham took his servants, which were in number three hundred and eighteen, and with this little army he pursued them, conquered all the four kings, and recovered his brother's son Lot, and all his fortune.

A little while after this, the Lord appeared to Abraham in a vision, saying, “Fear not, Abraham; I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward:" here a son was promised to him, and also the land of Canaan. Further the Lord said unto him, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee."

Abraham was informed also that his seed should be in bondage four hundred years, in a land that was not their's, and afterwards they should be called the chosen people of God. Also that there should arise four empires, and they should have the dominion over this world, and that the seed of Abraham should be scattered among them, and that these four empires should have the dominion over the seed of Abraham, until Shiloh should come.

*THE FOUR EMPIRES WERE SHEWN TO ABRAHAM. And he said to Abraham, "Take a heifer, of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon: and he divided them in the midst, but the birds divided he not. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham ; and, lo, a horror of great dark

ness fell upon him.". Gen. xv. 9. 12. * In the shape of a heifer Abraham saw Babylon: in the shape of a she-goat he saw Persia and Media: in the shape of a ram he saw Alexander the Great: in the shape of a turtle he saw the Romans: in the shape of a bird he saw his family of Israel.

When Abraham observed the miserable state of his family, their long captivity, their great sufferings under the power of these four empires, he thought to himself, how is it possible for them to bear so long a captivity? But, when he saw that it must be so, he took them and cut each of them into two pieces, and laid one piece against the other. The further to relieve, in some measure, his family, he divided them, that is, he weakened their strength and power, by setting each piece against the other: that these four empires should be always one against the other, and they never should be quiet, but always fighting the one against the other: by so doing the gentiles will fight one against the other, they now and then will forget Israel, and sometimes they will have no time to meditate against them; this will, in some degree, save them from utter destruction. But did Abraham despair of his family to remain in that miserable state for ever? No, by no means, for Abraham was comforted by his God by a great promise. The Lord said to Abraham, I have given thee a token already, that as well as I have cast down before thee four kings, even so will I do to thy seed in due time; and as well as these four empires now fell before thee, even their seed that shall be the four empires in the latter days again shall also fall by thy son Shiloh. Thus far