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after his coming, they were both to ceafe, as we fee they have long fince actually done. The accomplishment of Jacob's Prophecy was gradual; Herod was of another Nation, but a Profelyte, and upon that account he might be ftil'd a Jew; as If. Cafaubon has prov'd against Baronius: And when he was made King of the Jews, this was as a Warning to awaken them to expect the full Accomplishment of this Prophecy, which was brought to pafs in the final Destruction of their Government. The Jewish Government all along, under all changes, was ftill denominated from Judah, tho' that Tribe was not always in chief Power; and even under Herod, who was an Idumean, it had its Title from Judah; as the Roman Empire retain'd its old Denomination, when divers of the Emperors were not Romans by Birth. But when the Meffiah was come, the Sceptre was to depart from Judah, and there were no more to be any Laws in force amongst that People, who had been fo long known under that Denomination, which they receiv'd from him.

And this Prophecy of Jacob, in which he foretels the condition of the feveral Tribes, has a plain Reference to the Promised Land, and is to be understood of the Jewish Government in the Land of Canaan; for he there defcribes the Borders of it. From the time that they were in poffeffion of that Land, the People of the Jews never had loft all their Right and Title to it, before the coming of Chrift, but still retain'd their Right, during their abode in Babylon, and were affur'd that they fhould again be put in poffeffion after a Captivity of feventy Years; and in token of this, Jeremiah parchafed a Field of Hanameel, his Uncle's Son, and fubfcribed and fealed the Writings, and took Witneffes, and paid down the Money publickly before all the Jews that fat in the Court of the Prifon, and

k Exercitat. I. Num. S

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the Evidences were to be kept in an Earthen Vessel For thus faith the Lord of Hofts, the God of Ifrael, Houses, and Fields, and Vineyards, fhall be poffefs'd again in this Land, Jer. xxxii. 14. But when the time of Jacob's Prophecy was expir'd, and Shiloh was come, they were driven out, never to be restor❜d again.

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The Romans, the most generous of any People; dealt fo hardly with no other Nation as with the Jews, who yet had to do with one of the most merciful Princes that ftands upon récord in Hiftory. If Tiberius, or Caligula, or Nero, had destroyed them, it might have been afcrib'd to the cruelty of their Tem per; but when Titus, who endeavour'd to fave them, was by their own obftinacy forc'd upon their Deftru&tion, after they had by their Diffentions made themfelves a Prey to him, there was the visible Hand of God in it; as Jofephus often confeffes, and as " Titus himself declar'd, when he beheld the Towers and Fortifications after the City was taken. If they could have agreed, either in their own defence, or in any terms of fubmiffion to him, they would have been far from fuffering in that Extremity. When Pompey and Craffus entred Jerufalem, the time of its Destruction was not yet come, but it was referv'd to Titus, whofe peculiar Character it was, that he oblig'd all Men, and who was stil'd the Love and Delight of Mankindz unwillingly to do that which neither Pompey nor Craffus would do. It is well urg'd by a "learned Jew, tho' he makes a wrong Inference from it. Did the fame thing, fays he, befal any other People? Did the Romans drive the Germans, the Britains, the Gauls, the Spaniards, the Greeks, or the Afiatick Nations into Captivity, and difperfe them throughout all Parts of the World? They rather endeavour'd to preferve

De Bell. Jud. 1. 6. c. 10, 11, 16. m lb. l. 7. c. 16. • Secundum fcriptum Judæi apud Limbroch.

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them;

them, that their feveral Countries might not want Inhabitants.

And tho' the Jews have been generally obferv'd to have great Riches in the Nations where they live, they have never been able by any power or interest to get themselves re-establish'd in their Country and Government, but have been disappointed as often as they have attempted it, tho' with never fo much probability of fuccefs. So evident it is by the experience of fo many Ages, that however it fares with particular Perfons of that Nation, yet they never are to be united again, as a Community, or Body of People, to live under their ancient Laws according to the Mofaical Constitution. They have no City, no Government, nor ever are to have any; and therefore those Laws can now no longer be in force, which fuppofe the continuance of their Government. Their Genealogies are loft, upon which the diftinction of their Tribes and Families, and the fucceffion of their Priesthood did depend, which has been acknowledged by the learnedft Man, perhaps, that ever was fufpected of apoftatizing from Christianity to Judaism; fo that they are without an Altar, without a Prieft, without a Sacrifice, and without any poffibility of knowing the Defcent and Lineage of their Meffiah, whom they expect to come; and by confequence, cannot know him if he should come, having no way to distinguish that Tribe and Family of which the Prophecies declare the Messiah was to be. In the Babylonian Captivity, there were Αἰχμαλωτάρχα, who kept up Order and Government amongst them; and that, befides, was at

Soli Hebræi generis antiquitate certiffimâ populis omnibus præftant: nemo tamen fuam Tribum nunc ciere poteft; fed omnes inter fe confufi ftirpem agnofcunt; ramos ignorant: Gens verò facerdotum, quæ nobilitatis fummum genus ab Aarone repetens, duobus annorum millibus ac trecentis floruerat, Gothicis ac Vandalicis cladibus creditur interiiffe, non fine magno Divinæ Ultionis argumento. Bodin. Method. Hift. c. 9.

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the most but a fufpenfion of their Power, it was no utter extirpation of all Rule and Authority; their Genealogies were preferved, and the diftinction of their Tribes and Families known; their deliverance out of that Captivity, with the time and manner of it, and the very Name of their Deliverer was foretold, Ifa. xliv. 28. Jer. xxv. 12. Dan. ix. 2. And in that Captivity they had Prophets to direct and fupport them under their Affliction, and give them affurance of a Restoration, but now they do not fo much as pretend to have any. The Deliverance of the Ifraelites out of the Egyptian Bondage was likewise foretold, with the punctual time of it, Gen. xv. 13, 14. And in general, God declares that when at any time, for their Sins, they were led into Captivity, and difperfed among the Heathens, tho' they were driven unto the utmost part of Heaven, yet upon their repentance he would turn their Captivity, and have compaffion upon them, and would return, and gather them from all the Nations, whither he had fcattered them, Deut. xxx. 2,3. Nehem. i. 8, 9. And this Promise must have been in force, as long as their Law and Conftitution lafted, and could have no limitation but the final and determined period of it. The time for the duration of the Jewish Law and Government being expired, all Promifes made to them as a diftin&t People and Nation, must be expired with it; whereas, if their Law were ftill in force, the promise of their being reftored to their Land and Government, would undoubtedly before this time, have been fulfilled to them. For be fides, that their Sins, at their return from their Captivity in Babylon, were very great, it cannot be fuppofed, that for fo many Ages their Sins fhould hinder that a Remnant at least should not be restored, if the Jewish Oeconomy had not received its final period in the deftruction of their City and Nation. P Redde

P Tertul. adv. Judæos, c. 13.

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ftatum

Statum Judea, quem Chriftus inveniat, & alium contende venire. This, which was a good Argument in Tertullian's time, is improv'd ftill in every Age fince. For if the ftate of the Jewish Nation was not fuch then as their Meffiah was to find at his Coming, there is the lefs caufe for them after fo long time to hope that they shall ever be restored to fuch a Condition, as to have any reason to expect him.

III. After the Coming of the Meffiah, the Jewish Law was to become impracticable, and impossible to be obferv'd. For if the City and Temple were not destroy'd, the Confinement of the Jewish Worship to one certain Place, muft neceffarily imply an Alteration in their Worfhip upon the Coming of the Meffiah, and the Calling of the Gentiles; who could not all be fuppos'd to affemble thrice every year at Jerusalem; and therefore the Prophets foretold, that Jerufalem should then be no longer the only place of God's Worfhip, but that Men fhould worship him in any place of the World. 'Tis true, the Prophets often mention the Refort which fhould be made from all Nations to Jerufalem, and to the Tempie, or the Moun tain of the Lord. But then thefe are Mystical Expreffions; for the City of Jerufalem, and the Temple, are us'd by the Prophets as Types of the Chriftian Church, and therefore Ezekiel describes the Temple larger than the whole City of Jerufalem, and the City in greater Dimenfions than all the Land of Canaan, to Thew that we are not to understand these Expreffions literally. A Priefthood after the Order of Melchifedek, different from that of Aaron, was prophefy'd of, jal. cx. 4. and a New Covenant different from that which was made with the Children of Ifrael upon their coming out of the Land of Egypt, Jerem. xxxi. 31, 32. And this Covenant was to extend to the Gentiles, as well as to the Jews. And it shall come,

Lightfoot's Profpe&t of the Temple, Chap. ii.