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been any regal power in Judah, no king, no prince, no governor, ruling over them with the emblem of power, the sceptre; no lawgiver, no judicial authority, has been known among them since the coming of Christ. They have for these eighteen hundred years been governed where they have been driven, by foreign monarchs, even to the most remote corners of the earth.

Some of the more modern rabbies, having been sensible of the force of this in aid of the Christian cause, have attempted to show that the word by Shebet, which is rendered to mean a sceptre, the emblem of authority, may also be translated to mean a rod, to signify punishment, and thus that their present punishment, among the different nations, shall not depart from them until the true Messiah comes to take them to their own land: where they are to enjoy uninterrupted rule over all nations. But this does not agree with Onkelos, for his translation runs thus,-" There shall not be taken away from Judah one having the principality, nor the scribe from the sons of his children, till the Messiah shall come." This is plain proof, that in his time the word Shebet, was understood to mean, the principality, or government, should not depart from the Jewish nation until Messiah came. And this is also in perfect agreement with the Jerusalem Targum, and with Jonathan's, for they translated the word Shebet, to mean the principality, and the word Shiloh, the Messiah; from which it must be evident, that the testimonies of these ancient authorities most effectually refute the arguments of the modern Jews, as to the coming of the Messiah.

Numbers xxiv. 17. "There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel." Onkelos, as well as Christians, interprets this to mean the Messiah. The Targum of Jonathan gives the same application. Maimonides also says, that "this was not to

be a kingdom for the Jews only, but that it was to be an universal kingdom for all men." See Melakin. cap. 11.

sec. 1.

Micah v. 2.

"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel.”—Many of the Jewish writers having seen how this was accomplished in the person of Christ, that he came out of Bethlehem, knowing also, that it was anciently understood, that the Messiah was to be born in that place, which is now no more (of which above) have laboured to give this passage a different application. Some have applied it to Hezekiah, some to Zerubbabel who led them from the captivity in Babylon. But the Targum of Jonathan asserts it to mean the Messiah, as Christians do. The translation is, "out of thee shall come forth before me the Messiah, who shall exercise sovereign rule over Israel.”

Psalm ii. 2. "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his Anointed.” All Christians have understood this to refer to the Messiah: and that it was accomplished in Christ. In the same manner, the apostles understood, that it meant the Messiah. Acts iv. 25-27. xiii. 33. Heb. i. But since the time of the apostles, the Jews have endeavoured to overturn this view, by asserting, contrary to the ancient Jews, before and at the time of Christ, that it applied to David; however, the Targum interprets this Psalm, verse 2d, to mean the Messiah.

Great stress is laid by Jewish writers of modern date concerning the words, my people; D, thy people; y, his people; which they presumptuously apply to themselves, and thus they have vainly supposed, that they are the people of God; some Christian writers have been weak enough to fall into this error.

But if

we attend to the history, we shall find, that the Jews cannot lay any claim to the high-sounding title of, people of God. For though they had the most astonishing display of the divine goodness in their favour, when they were brought out of Egypt, and had seen those things, which, had they been done to the idolatrous nations, they would have worshipped no other god than the God of heaven; yet in six weeks, they solemnly bowed themselves before the golden calf, saying, these are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of Egypt. If we pursue them through the history, we find, immediately after the death of Joshua, that they forsook the worship of God, and served the idols, "Baalim Baal, and Ashteroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines." In the time of their kings, the sacred historian has given an impartial account of their idolatries, and notwithstanding the prophets were sent to reclaim them, and the pious example of many who feared God among them, the great majority of the nation frequently abolished the worship of God, and established idolatrous worship.

Jeremiah complains of their ingratitude to God, and transmitted to posterity a list of this shameful abomination. Ch. xi. 6, 7, 8, 10, 13. "Then the Lord said unto me, proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them. For I earnestly protested unto your fathers, in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, saying, obey my voice. Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart. They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers. For, according to the number of thy cities, were thy gods, O Judah: and ac

cording to the number of the streets of Jerusalem, have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal." Surely if any Jew seriously considers the transactions of his progenitors as a nation, he will not conclude, that they were the only people of God. There was always a distinction made between those Jews who were the people of God, and those who were not. A covenant was made, which was of course conditional, and whoever fulfilled the conditions of that covenant, were called the people of God, and those who did not were cursed. Jer. xi. 2-4. "Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And say thou unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, obey my voice, and do them, accor ding to all which I command you; so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God."

In order to show, that they were never, as a nation, considered as the only people of God, any more than other nations, who worshipped God, were the people of God; we will turn to Hosea ii. 23. " and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy, and I will say to them which were not my people, thou art my people: and they shall say, thou art my God." If the Jews apply these words to themselves as a nation, then they must allow, that there was a time when they were not the people of God, viz. " and I will say unto them which were not my people, thou art my people." If, on the other hand, they be not willing to grant this, they are under the necessity of allowing, that nations who were not the people of God, were to be the people of God, viz. "and I will say unto them which were not my people,

thou art my people, and they shall say, thou art my God." Now as this was not accomplished during the time of the kings of Israel, they having not converted the idolatrous nations to the worship of God; nor after the return from the Babylonish captivity: and as the nations of Asia and Africa were converted to the Christian faith, and since that period the nations of Europe, who were idolators, have also received the gospel, and have thus become the people of God; the words of the prophet are now accomplished. Therefore, as all these things, foretold by the prophet, were accomplished at the coming of Christ, it must be admitted as indubitable proof, that He to whom all the prophets gave testimony, was the true Messiah who was to come: the Serpent-Bruiser of Moses, the Shiloh of Jacob, the Root of Jesse, the Lord of David, the Immanuel of Isaiah, and the Saviour of men.

Now, if in contradiction to all this mighty mass of evidence, the Jews can ever contend, that the Messiah is yet to come, they must be left to the enjoyment of their visionary notions. All those circumstances and things, which were to take place at the coming of the true Messiah, have been literally accomplished, without the possibility of ever returning, to afford a pretence for a Messiah to come; they have been carried on the wings of time, to the house of eternity, where they are registered as awful proofs, that the Hebrews, ever since the time of Christ, have rejected the incontrovertible evidence of their own prophets, that THE MESSIAH IS COME.

THE DOCTRINE OF NUMBERS.

It may be proper to inform the reader, that the Hebrew letters signify also numbers; and I have found, tha* much knowledge may be obtained from the Hebrew

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