be blessed, and to whom they shall be gathered for all these ends and purposes, is the true and only Messiah; and this is the Shiloh here mentioned. 31. We have the concurring assent of all the Targums unto this application of the word "Shiloh." Ben Uzziel: " " ;—“Until the time wherein the King Messiah shall come." The same are the words in that of Jerusalem; both of them, as we saw before, interpreting the next words also of the Messiah. And -; עד דייתי משיחא דדיליה היא מלכותא :Onkelos to the same purpose "Until the Messiah shall come, whose is the kingdom." Now, after the Scripture itself, there is no greater evidence of the persuasion of the old church of the Jews than what is found in the consent of these Targums; and of how little validity the exceptions of the modern Jews are against their authority is known to all. 32. And we have also the concession of their Talmuds and most learned masters, fully consenting in this cause. So in the Talmud of Jerusalem, in Chelek. "The world," say they, "is created for the Messiah, 121, and what is his name in the house of Rabbi Shiloh? They said, His name is Shiloh; as it is written, 'Until Shiloh come. And in Bereshith Rabba, on this place of Genesis, "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come:" 717 -"This is Messiah the son of David, who shall come to rule the kingdoms with a sceptre," as Ps. ii. And in Bereshith Ketanna, "Until the Shiloh come, aby os to pass that the nations of the world shall yw; for it shall come bring their gifts unto פירושו בנו והנבואה : שלה Messiah the son of David.” And Kimchi in non by;—“Shiloh' is interpreted his son;' and it is a prophecy of the Messiah." And innumerable other testimonies from them to the same purpose may be produced; yea, this sense is so common among them, and so known to have been the sense of the ancient church, that the wisest among them turn every stone to retain this interpretation of the words, and yet to avoid the force of the testimony insisted on from them. come. 33. This, then, we have obtained from this testimony, namely, that the political rule and national government should not absolutely and irrecoverably be removed and taken away from the tribe of Judah until the promised Seed should be exhibited, until the Messiah should It remaineth, THIRDLY, that we also evidence that all rule, government, and polity, is long since taken away from, and ceased in, 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, there would need very few words 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 occa sion serves, confess and bewail. Is it not known to all the world, that for these sixteen hundred years last past they have been scattered over the face of the earth, leading a precarious life, under the power of kings, princes, commonwealths, as their several lots in their dispersion have fallen, "sine Deo, sine homine rege?" Cast out of God's especial care, they wander up and down, without law, government, or authority, of their own or amongst themselves. And this, as I said, themselves also confess, as they have occasion. To this pur ; ואלה הם ימי הגלות שאנחנו בו היים,4 .pose see Kimchi on Hos. iii "And these are 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 lawgiver 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 Abarbanel on Isa. liii. He tells us that in their captivity and banishment, part -; שלא היה בישראל מלכות ולא ממשלת ולא שבט משפט of their misery is "that in Israel there is neither kingdom, nor rule, nor sceptre of judgment;" that is, plainly sceptre and lawgiver are departed: and therefore, if there be any truth in this prophecy, the Messiah is long since come. 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. Sanhed., 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 any certainty in any thing in this world, it is certain that sceptre and lawgiver 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 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 passed out of Europe into the eastern parts of the world, in a disquisition of his countrymen and their state and condition; whereof he hath given an account in his Itinerary, after the manner of vulgar travellers. Among other things which he relates, fide rabbinica, he tells us of a Jew that hath, or rather 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 passeth in the streets, they cry 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, p77 "у p'n';—“ 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 advantage to feign what he pleased for the reputation of his nation; which he was not wanting to the improvement of. 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 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 unto as to the matter in hand? Is this the sceptre and lawgiver promised unto Judah, as the great privilege above his brethren? It seems, an obscure, unknown person in Bagdad, in captivity, 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 they pretend unto in л, in the forty-second ,ריש הגולה or נשא story, where they give us an account of this "prince" or "head of the captivity," as they would have him esteemed. A rich Jew 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 for many ages they have chosen no such president, because the Saracens killed the last that was so chosen. Is this, I say, the continuance of the tribe and sceptre of Judah? Judah must be a nation, a people, in a political sense and state, dwelling in their own land, and have rule and dominion exercised therein according to their own law, or the sceptre and lawgiver are departed from them; and this they evidently are sixteen hundred years ago: and therefore the Shiloh, the promised Messiah, is long since come; which is the truth whose confirmation from this testimony was intended. EXERCITATION XIII. OTHER TESTIMONIES PROVING THE MESSIAH TO BE COME. 1. Other testimonies proving the Messiah to be come-Hag. ii. 3, 6–9; Mal. iii. 1. 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 Abarbanel. 5. The glory promised to this house. 6. Brief summary of the glory of Solomon's temple-Its projec tion; 7. Magnificence. 8. Treasure spent about it. 9. Number of workmen employed in it. 10. Ornaments. 11. Worship. 12. Second temple compared with it-Pretensions of the rabbins about its greatness and duration removed-What was the glory promised to the second house-Opinion of the Jews. 13. The promise of it not conditional-The meaning of in the text-Evasions of Abarbanel, 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 Asmonæans 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 testimonies of the same evidence and importance with the foregoing. The end of calling and separating the people of the Jews from the rest of the world, the forming of them into a nation, and the setting up of a political state and rule amongst them, being solely, as we have declared, to bring forth the promised Messiah by them, and to shadow out his spiritual kingdom, it was necessary that he should come before their utter desolation and final rejection from that state and condition; 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. Whilst that also, therefore, continued and was accepted of God, in the place of his own appointment, he was to be brought forth and to accomplish his work in the world. This also, in sundry places of the Old Testament, is foretold. One or two of the most eminent of them 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, chap. ii. 3, 6–9, whereunto we shall add Mal. iii. 1. The words of the former place are, "Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye 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. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of 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 the whole discourse of the prophet in that place. The people, returning from their captivity with Zerubbabel, in the days of Cyrus, had laid the foundation of the temple: but having begun their work, great opposition was made against it, and great discouragements they met withal; as it will fall out with all men that 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, 8, being possessed with 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, chap. iv. 5, and at length expressly forbade their proceedings, causing the whole work to cease "by force and power," verse 23. Besides this outward opposition, they were moreover greatly discouraged by their own poverty and disability for the carrying on their designed work in any measure, so as to answer the beauty and glory of their former house builded by Solomon. Hence the elders of the people, who had seen the former house in its glory, "wept with a loud voice" when they saw the foundation of this laid, chap. iii. 12, 13, as foreseeing how much the splendour and beauty of their worship would be eclipsed and impaired; for as the measures of the fabric itself, assigned unto it by Cyrus, chap. 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 provision for them. Being therefore thus hindered and discouraged, the work ceased wholly from the end of Cyrus' reign unto the second year of Darius Hystaspes; for there is no reason to suppose that this intercision of the work continued unto the reign of Darius Nothus. Between the first year of the whole empire of Cyrus and the second of Darius Nothus, there were no less than a hundred years, as we shall afterwards declare. Now, it is evident in Ezra that Zerubbabel and Joshua, who began the work in the reign of Cyrus, were alive and carried it on in the days of Darius; and it is scarcely credible that they, who, it may be, were none of the youngest men when they first returned unto Jerusalem, should live there a hundred years, and then return unto the work again. Outward force and opposition, then, they were delivered from in the second year of Darius Hystaspes; but their discouragements from their poverty and disability still continued. This the prophet intimates, Hag. ii. 3, "Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes as nothing?" There is no necessity for reading the words with a supposition, as Scaliger contends, "If there were any amongst you who had seen;" for it is much more likely that some who had seen the former house of Solomon, and wept at the laying of the foundation of this in the days of Cyrus, should now see the |