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tainty in any thing in this world, it is certain that sceptre and law-giver 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 a 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 travelled from Europe to the eastern parts of the world, and in his Itinerary, after the manner of common travellers, he gives us an account of the state and condition of his countrymen. Among other things which he relates, fide Rabbinica, he tells us of a Jew who 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 passed in the streets, they cried 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, pin Typ, 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 Eu ropeans, and he had thence opportunity to feign what he pleased for the reputation of his nation, which opportunity he did not neglect to use. 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 of 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 to as to the matter in hand? Is this the sceptre and law-giver promised unto Judah, as the great privilege above his brethren? It seems, that an obscure unknown person in captivity at Bagdad, 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 that they pretend to in 7, in the fortysecond story, where they give us an account of this or han, Prince, or Head of the Captivity, as they would have him esteemed. A rich Jew, as 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 now for many ages they have chosen no such president, because the Saracens killed the last that was so chosen. this, I say, the continuance of the tribe and sceptre of Judah?

And is

No: Judah must be a nation, a people in a political sense and state, dwelling in his own land, and must have rule and domi nion exercised therein according to its own law, or the sceptre and law-giver are departed from it. And this they evidently are sixteen hundred years ago, and therefore the Shiloh, the promi sed Messiah, is long since come; and this is the truth, which from this testimony we intended to confirm.

EXERCITATION XIII.

1. Other testimonies proving the Messiah to be come. Hagg. ii. 3—9. Mal. iii. 1, 2. § 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 Abarbinel. $5. The glory promised to this house. § 6. Brief summary of the glory of Solomon's temple. Its projection, § 7. Magnificence. 8. Treasure spent about it. § 9. Number of workmen employed in it. § 10. Ornaments. 11. Worship. 12. Second temple compared with it. What was the glory promised to the second house. Opinion of the Jews. § 13. The promise of it not conditional. The meaning of W in the text. Evasions of Abarbinel, 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 Hasmoneans, 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 proofs from the Old Tes

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tament, which afford the same evidence, and which are of simi lar importance with the foregoing. The end of calling and separating the Jews from the rest of the world, of forming them into a nation, and of setting up a political state and rule amongst them, was solely, as we have declared, to bring forth the promi sed Messiah by them, and to shadow out his spiritual kingdom. It was necessary then, that he should come before their utter desolation and final rejection from their national state, 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. While that also therefore continued, and was accepted of God in Jerusalem, the place of his own appointment, Messiah was to be brought forth, and to accomplish his work in the world. This is foretold in sundry other places of the Old Testament; one or two of the most eminent of these 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, ch. ii. 3-9. unto which 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 you 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; and the glory of this latter house shall be greater than 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.

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§ 2. The occasion of the former words must be inquired after, from the story of those times in Ezra, and from the whole discourse of the prophet in that place. The people who had returned from their captivity with Zerubbabel, in the days of Cyrus, had laid the foundation of the temple; but having begun their work, they met with much discouragement, from the great opposition which was made to it. Thus indeed it will happen to all men, who 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. 7-9. being influenced by 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, Ezra. iv. 5. and at length expressly forbade their proceedings, causing the whole work to cease by force and power, ver. 23. Besides this outward opposition, they were moreover greatly discouraged by their own poverty and inability for the carrying on their designed work in any measure, so as to answer the beauty and glory of their former house built 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 foundations of this laid, Ezra iv. 12, 13. They foresaw how much the splendour and beauty of their worship would be impaired; for as the dimensions assigned to the fabric itself by Cyrus, Ezra, 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 suitable provision for these. Being therefore thus hindered and discouraged, the work ceased wholly from the end of the reign of Cyrus, unto the second year of Darius Hystaspes. For there is no reason to suppose that this interruption of the work continued unto the reign of Darius Nothus. Between the first year of the whole empire of Cyrus, to 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 an 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 inability still continued. This the prophet intimates, ver. 4. "Who is there left among you, who saw this house in its first glory, and what do you now see it? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?" For there is no necessity of 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 carrying of it on in the second year of Darius Hystaspes, that is about ten or twelve years after, than that those who began the work in the reign of Cyrus, should live to perfect it in the second year of Darius Nothus, an hundred years after. However, it is evident that the old discouragement was still pressing upon them. The former house was glorious and magnificent, famous and renowned in the world, and full of comfort unto them, from the visible pledges of the presence of God that were therein. To remove this discouragement, and to support them under it, the Lord by this prophet makes them a promise, that whatever the straitness and poverty of the house might be which they undertook to build, however short it came of the glory of that of old, yet from what he himself would do, he would render that house far more glorious than the former; namely, by doing that in it, for which both it and the former were instituted and erected. Saith he,

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The glory - גדול יהיה כבוד הבית הזה האחרון מן הראשון

of this latter house shall be great above that of the former." To clear the argument which we intend to deduce from these words, we must consider, 1. What this latter house was which is spoken of in this passage: and, 2. Wherein the glory of it did

consist.

§ 3. First, We are to inquire what house it is whereof the prophet speaks: now this is most evident in the context. This house, saith he, ver. 4. that your eyes look upon, and which you so much despise in comparison of the former. And ver. 8. I' will fill, saith the Lord, nan, this house which you are now finishing, with glory. And ver. 9. it is called man, 11, this latter house. The prophet doth, as it were, point to it with his finger. This house that you and I are looking upon,

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