again;-if we consider farther, that the Jews lived at Babylon as a distinct people, and were governed in their own affairs by their own rulers and elders, appointed feasts and fasts, and ordered all other matters relating to their own civil and ecclesiastical affairs within themselves;* it will take off the weight of this difficulty, and show us that the power and sceptre of Judah relative to the being and subsistence of the tribe, were not removed during this captivity. And indeed what reason is there to think that this constitution was disturbed by the transplanting the people to Babylon, which began under the power of the kings of Egypt, and subsisted with all the forms and changes of government, which the people of Israel underwent, from their coming out of the Egyptian bondage to their going into the captivity of Babylon? Sure we are from the accounts preserved in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, Ezra i. 5. ii. 68. iii. 12. viii. 1. ix. 1. x. 14. Nehem. ii. 16. iv. 14. 19. vi. 17. that the tribes of Judah and Benjamin subsisted as such during the captivity, and preserved very regular accounts of their genealogies. That they had likewise their chiefs and elders who decided their affairs, there is no doubt; they are mentioned in Ezra and Nehemiah as the persons managing the great affairs of the return, and re-establishing the service of God in Jerusalem that they came back to their own country as a people and nation governed by their own laws, is evident from the complaint sent against them to Artaxerxes, in which they make too great a figure, and are represented too considerable to be thought a set of mere slaves, subjected intirely to a foreign yoke, without law or government of their own: Ezra iv. 11. It is true that from the time of their captivity the Jews were never so free a people again as they had been formerly; they lived under the subjec

* The decree for destroying the Jews in apocryphaf Esther is founded in this, 'that they had laws contrary to all nations, and continually despised the commandments of the king,' ch. xiii, yer. 4. And when the decree is reversed, they are said to live by most just laws, ch. xvi. ver. 15. Esther, in her prayer for the people, says, 'O Lord, give not thy sceptre unto them that be nothing, and let them not laugh at our fall,' ch. xiv. 11. And if the writer of the History of Susanna knew any thing of the state of the Jews in Babylon, it is plain they had rulers and judges of their own, who executed their laws even in capital causes: ver. 41, and 62,

tion of the Persian monarch, and under the empire of the Greeks and Romans to their last destruction; but still they lived as a distinct people governed by their own law :* and the authority of the Persian and other kings over them destroyed not the rule and authority of Judah, which subsisted with it; as it had, in its first commencement, subsisted under the kings of Egypt, and oftentimes under judges and kings of their own. How the case stood in the time of the Asmonean princes may be collected from several passages of the Maccabees, but especially from the preambles of public leagues made by and with the Jews.t Historians oftentimes speak loosely, but authentic public acts preserve forms, and show in what hands the government resides. The ambassadors sent from Jerusalem to Rome speak in the name of Judas Maccabæus and his brethren, and the people of the Jews: 1 Mac. viii. 20. The league which followed on this application to Rome, is styled, a covenant with the people of the Jews' ibid. v. 29. xii. 3. xv. 17. When the league was made with the Lacedæmonians, the public letter was in the following style: Jonathan the high priest, and the elders of the nation and the priests, and the other people of the Jews:' xii. 6. When Simon was their governor, his authority was conveyed to him in the congregation of the priests and the people, and rulers of the nation and elders of the country:' xiv. 28. These are elsewhere called the council,' and the rest of the Jews :' 2 Macc. xi. 27. and the people of the Jews:' ibid. v. 34. These instances are sufficient to show that the polity of the Jews as a distinct people, under heads and rulers of their own, subsisted in this period, and was not extinguished by the power of the Asmonean princes.

That things continued in this state to the very death of Christ may be evinced from many passages in the gospel; some I shall produce, and close this article.

When our Saviour tells the Jews, the truth shall make you free,' they reply, we are Abraham's children, and were never

* Artaxerxes' commission to Ezra is express, that he should appoint such magistrates and judges,' as know the laws of thy God.' † Περσῶν καὶ μετ ̓ ἐκείνους ἡγουμένων τῆς ̓Ασίας Μακεδόνων, Αἰγύπτιοι μὲν ἐδούλευον ἀνδραπόδων οὐδὲν διαφέροντες· ἡμεῖς δὲ ὄντες ἐλεύθεροι προσέτι καὶ TŵV TÉρIĘ TÓλEWV Hpxoμev, &c.. Joseph. contra Apion. lib. ii. sect. ii.

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in bondage to any man :' John viii. 32. 33. Surely they had not forgot their captivity in Babylon, much less could they be ignorant of the power of the Romans over them at that time; and yet you see they account themselves free. And so they were, for they lived by their own laws, and executed judgment among themselves. This is plain from the case of the woman taken in adultery; Moses in the law,' say the Scribes and Pharisees, commanded us that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou?' John viii. 5. When our Saviour foretels his

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disciples that they should be delivered up to councils, and scourged in synagogues,' Matt. x. 17. he shows at the same time what power and authority were exercised in the councils and synagogues of the Jews. When Pilate, willing to be delivered of Jesus, says to the Jews, 'take ye him and crucify him,' John xix. 6. and again, take ye him, and judge him according to your own law,' John xviii. 31. he also shows that the Jews lived under their own law, and had the exercise of judicial authority among themselves.* This was the condition of things at the death of Christ.

By this deduction it appears evidently that the sceptre placed in the hand of Judah by his father Jacob just before his death, continued in his posterity till the very death of Christ. From that time all things began to work towards the destruction of the Jewish polity, and within a few years their city, temple, and government were utterly ruined; and the Jews, not carried into a gentle captivity, to enjoy their law and live as a distinct people in a foreign country, but they were sold like beasts in a market, and became slaves in the strictest sense, and from that day to this have had neither prince nor lawgiver among them. Nor will they ever be able, 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 Esdr. xiii. 41.

Before I take leave of this subject, it is necessary to observe that this interpretation of the prophecy of Jacob relating to

* See this proved at large by Wagenseil, Carm. Lip. Con. p. 299. &c.

Judah, is very much confirmed by another prophecy given by Moses not long before his death. In the 33rd chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses blesses the tribes; and as there are many passages in this last benediction of Moses which correspond to the blessings pronounced by Jacob, so particularly the blessing of Judah by Moses seems to relate to the last state of that tribe, and the continuance of the sceptre of Judah after the dispersion of the other tribes. The words of Moses are these; Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him unto his people: let his hands be sufficient for him, and be thou an help to him from his enemies' Deut. xxxiii. 7. This benediction cannot relate to the time when it was given; for then Judah's hands were very sufficient for him, this tribe being by much the greatest of the twelve tribes, as appears by two different accounts of the forces of Israel in the book of Number, i. and xxvi.; and there was more reason to put up this petition for several other tribes than for Judah. Besides, what is the meaning of 'bringing Judah to his people?' How were he and his people at this time separated? What means likewise the other part of the petition? Be thou an help to him from his enemies.' This petition supposes a state of distress; yet what distress was Judah in at this time, at least what greater distress than the other tribes? The ancient Targums and some old versions understand the first petition of bringing Judah back to his people, to be only a request in his behalf for safe return from the day of battle; but was there not the same reason for the same petition in behalf of every tribe? Nay, how much better would it have suited Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, who left their people and their settlements on the other side of Jordan, and passed over the river in the very front of the battle to assist their brethren? Josh. iv. 12.

But if you refer this prophecy to the prophecy of Jacob, and to the continuance of the sceptre of Judah after the destruction of the other tribes, every expression is natural and proper, and suited to the occasion. Do but suppose Moses in the spirit of prophecy to have a sight of the state of affairs when all the people were in captivity, and you will see how this prophetic prayer answers to that state. All the tribes were in captivity, the ten tribes in Assyria, and Judah in Babylon; but it was

implied in Jacob's prophecy, that Judah should retain the sceptre, and return again; for Judah only therefore does Moses pray, that he may come to his people again.' Jacob had foretold that at this time the gathering of the people should be to Judah;' that he should be all in all, the only head of all the remnant of Israel. These people, destined to be gathered to Judah, were now no people, could be no people till the return of Judah; at which return many of all the tribes were to join themselves to Judah, and with him to form one people; how properly then does Moses pray that ‘Judah might return to his people?'

'Let his hands be sufficient for him.' Good reason was there for this petition, for scarcely were his hands sufficient at the return from Babylon. The tribe of Judah, Num. xxvi. 22. in Moses's time consisted of 76,500. reckoning only those of twenty years old and upward. But on the return from Babylon, Judah, with Benjamin, the Levites, and the remnant of Israel, made only 42,360. Ezra ii. 64.; and in so weak a state they were, that Sanballat in great scorn said, 'what do these feeble Jews?' Neh. iv. 2. And the people themselves complain, as being not sufficient to go through the toil of building the wall: And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish, so that we are not able to build the wall:' Nehem. iv. 10.

'Be thou an help to him from his enemies.' The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are convincing proofs of the great difficulties and oppositions which the Jews found in setting up their temple and city. Once their enemies had so prevailed, that orders came from the court of Persia to stop all their proceedings; and even at last, when Nehemiah came to their assistance with a new commission from Artaxerxes, they were so beset with enemies, that the men employed in building the wall 'every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon:' Neh. iv. 17.

Lay these two prophecies now together: Jacob foretels that Judah's sceptre should continue till Shiloh came; which is in effect foretelling that the sceptres of the other tribes should not continue so long. Moses in the spirit of prophecy sees the desolation of all the tribes; he sees the tribes of the kingdom