as the supporters of the other two branches of the common interpretation are wont to do.--As where he talks of the Jews in Babylon ordering all matters relating to their own CIVIL and ECCLESIASTICAL Aƒfairs. p.345. Their coming back to their own Country as a People and a nation GOVERNED BY THEIR OWN LAWS-though never so FREE A PEOPLE as they had been formerly. They lived under subjection to the Persian Monarch, and under the empire of the Greeks and Romans. p. 347.-The Evangelists shew that they lived under their own Laws, and EXECUTED JUDGMENT Amongst themselves., p. 349.-Had the exercise of JUDICIAL AUTHORITY amongst themselves, P. 350. Thus, like the Successors of Peter, who enlarged his Rock into a Citadel, his Lordship at last lengthens his tribal Sceptre into a sovereign. But if here he extends it over a People and Nation, he contracts it as much by and by; and we see it shrink up into a mere philosophical or Stoical, Regality. His Lordship undertakes to prove that the Jews were a FREE PEOPLE, from their own consciousness of their free condition.—When our Saviour (says the Bishop) tells the Jews "The truth shall make you free;" they reply, "We are Abraham's Children, and were never "in bondage, to any man." p. 349. This his Lordship.urges as a proof of their Civil freedom. But if the Jews, who expected a carnal Messiah to lead real armies against their enemies, could suppose that Jesus made them an offer of sending Truth in person, to execute this commission for them, their stupidity must have exceeded every thing we have been told of it, by their Enemies. To be plain with his Lordship, the subject here debated, between Jesus and his adversaries, is most foreign from his Lordship's purpose. Our blessed Saviour is here addressing himself to the PHARISEES,

PHARISEES, a rank of men not ignorant of the Greek philosophy (though greatly mistaking its use when they brought so much of it into the Law), and therefore, with a Stoical dignity, he tells them-the truth shall set you free. They answer him in the same tone, We are Abraham's Children, and were never in bondage to any man. That is, "Our principles are of divine extraction, and we never suffered ourselves to be inslaved to human decisions." Surely (says his Lordship) they had not forgot their captivity in Babylon. Forgot! Why, Jesus had said nothing to put them in mind of it. The question is not about their freedom from Babylon, but from Error. Much less (says he) could they be ignorant of the power of the Romans over them at that time, and yet we see they account themselves free. And why should they not, when the Question between Jesus and them was only who should make them so, HE or ABRAHAM. Strange! that his Lordship's own account of their civil condition under the power of the Romans should not have brought him to see, that the subject in hand was only of their moral Condition. Stranger still! that his solution of this difficulty should not have led him to discover that it was but immaginary--they were free (says his Lordship) for they lived by their own Laws, and executed judgment amongst themselves.→ Had he added-but, at the precarious nod of an arbitrary Tyrant--it would doubtless have given great force to his observation: For, about this time, Coponius, a Roman Knight, was named Procurator of Judea. Nay, even the precarious privilege of punishing capitally was now taken from them: They had a pagan Governor and Justice was administered, not by their own Forms of Law, but by the Roman. An admirable character of civil Freedom!

His Lordship seems to be no happier in answering others objections, than in urging his own proofs. "You will say (continues he) why did not Jacob "foretell also the continuance of the Sceptre of Benjamin? For the tribe of Benjamin run the same "fortune with that of Judah: they went together into captivity: they returned home together; and were both in Being when Shiloh came." p. 355;

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Upon my word, a shrewd objection, Let us see how his Lordship quits his hands of it. His first answer is, That from the division of the Kingdom after the death of Solomon, the tribe of Benjamin and the remnant of Israel, that is, part of all the other tribes, ADHERED TO JUDAH AS THEIR HEAD. PP. 355, 6.

Here his Lordship seems fairly to have given up the Cause; his answer proving, in so many words, that Judah's Sceptre was not tribal, but civil. Let us examine it step by step. Benjamin and the remnants of all the other tribes adhered to Judah as their head. Now such an adherence can be no other than an acknowledgement of a Civil Sceptre in Judah. Yet his Lordship gives this as a reason why the continuance of Judah's Sceptre is foretold, and not Benjamin's Therefore the Sceptre, whose continuance is foretold, was a civil, not a tribal, Sceptre, even on his own principles. If this needed a support, the words of the Prophecy afford it amply; his Lordship says, that Benjamin and the remnants of all the other tribes adhered to Judah as their HEAD; and this adherence, Jacob foretells-Thy Father's children shall FALL DOWN before thee,

Supposing therefore that this Sceptre of Judah were of the civil kind, his Lordship, it must be owned, has given a very satisfactory reason why Benjamin's tribal

sceptre

sceptre was not mentioned. But if both were tribal Sceptres, the continuance of Benjamin's had as good a claim to the Prophet's notice (for any thing the Bishop has shewn to the contrary) as Judah's. Since as Tribes, they both continued to exist, and to exist distinct.

His second answer to the Objection seems as little satisfactory as the first-Though the continuance of the SCEPTRE of Benjamin is not foretold, yet the continuance of the tribe or PEOPLE of Benjamin is distinctly foretold. p. 356. Would you desire a more conclusive argument against his own notion of a tribal Sceptre? If this prophetic Sceptre of Judah was a civil one, there is a very good reason why the continuance of the people, and not of the Sceptre of Benjamin, should be foretold; because what Judah and Benjamin had in common was their continuing to exist as distinct tribes; the Sceptre being peculiar to the first: But if a tribal Sceptre be the subject of the Prophecy concerning Judah, then no possible reason can be assigned why the continuance of Benjamin's Sceptre should not be honoured with the divine notice as well as Judah's; since his Lordship assures usthey both run the same fortune; they went together into captivity; they returned together to Judea; and were both in being when Shiloh came. And while a Tribe continues distinct, a tribal Sceptre continues with it; just as the head of a family exists so long as there is a family to govern.

All this considered, his Lordship in my humble opinion had done well not to load himself with more than he had occasion to carry: especially as he had so little to answer for, in the success of this hypothesis; for he tells us at the end of his DISSERTA TION, that he has nothing more to add, but to acquaint

the reader that the interpretation of Jacob's Prophecy now advanced, was not a mere invention of his own; that it was, as to the main point, the same with that which is the fourth in HUETIUS, and by him rejected, but for such reasons as had been fully obviated in this dissertation. That it was the same which JUNIUS and TREMELLIUS, and our own learned Countryman, AINSWORTH, had espoused; and which not many years ago was revived and improved by Mr. JONCOURT. pag. 358.

Now, from what hath been said, it appears that of all the three branches, into which the common interpretation spreads, though they be equally weak, the last betrays its weakness most. But, what is of principal consideration, it is, of all the three, least suitable to the DIGNITY OF PROPHECY; the whole body of which has a perpetual reference to one or other of the great parts of the Dispensation of Grace. Now the first branch refers with suitable dignity to a whole People at large: the second to the same People under the Government of one certain line: while the third concerns only the fortunes of a single Tribe, and under a Family-idea.

The common interpretation therefore being shewn so very exceptionable in all its branches, what remains for us to conclude, but that the true and real meaning of the Sceptre of Judah is that THEOCRATIC GOVERNMENT which God, by the vicegerency of Judges, Kings, and Rulers, exercised over the Jewish nation? We have shewn from various considerations of weight, that this THEOCRACY, which was instituted by the ministry of Moses, continued over that People till the coming of Shiloh or Christ; THAT PROPHET like unto Moses, whom God had promised to raise up. And to support what hath been urged from reason, to illustrate VOL, V.

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this