to claim it, the character in which He was manifested from His birth. So His coming was announced by the Angel,-" He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end."* By this title the divinely-guided Magi from the East sought Him, entering Jerusalem with the inquiry, "Where is He that is born KING OF THE JEWs ?"-their interpretation of "the star to come out of Jacob," and "the sceptre to rise out of Israel," in the prophecy of Balaam (Num. xxiv. 17), which, there is good

* The reigns of David and Solomon as the kings of God's own choice, while as yet also the kingdom was undivided, being that period when the kingdom denoted by Judah's sceptre was most fairly represented, the kingdom of the Messiah is ever described with reference to that type,—as the re-establishment of, and the continuation of the succession to, "the Throne of David." Not that the Kingdom of God was not with Israel even after that succession was interrupted and when they had no king; but the history of that people was, from that time, a history of declension, and the glory was departing. In which connexion a striking passage (and a decisive proof of the statement here made that the sceptre was held in trust by Judah for the Shiloh) occurs in Ezekiel, xxi. 25-27, an address to the last king who sat on David's throne:"And thou profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity (shall have) an end. Thus saith the Lord God, Remove the diadem and take off the crown; this shall not be the same [Heb. this shall not be nor that, i. e. neither the diadem nor crown]: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more UNTIL HE COME WHOSE RIGHT IT IS, AND I WILL GIVE IT HIM."

reason to conclude, was their clue to the sign afforded them. [Appendix N]. He proclaimed it Himself when He rode into Jerusalem in fulfilment of the prophecy of Zechariah,-" Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, THY KING cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass :" and by it the attendant crowds then greeted Him, crying, "Hosanna, blessed is the KING OF ISRAEL, that cometh in the name of the Lord." And, finally, this was the charge upon which He was arraigned, tried, condemned, and crucified, as proclaimed by the accusation and title affixed to His cross," JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS," in fulfilment of His own predictions, in which He had foretold the ground of His rejection by the nation; as for example, His parable of the husbandmen who said, "This is the HEIR; come, let us kill Him, and let us seize on HIS INHERITANCE:" and that other, spoken immediately before his decease, in which His citizens say, "We will not have this man to REIGN Over us."

2. And then also the sceptre departed. As already said, Judah had held it in trust until He should come whose it is. He came and claimed it, and it was refused Him: and then, as He had forewarned them in applying the parable just referred to,-" The kingdom of God shall be taken from you," "-so it proved. Not indeed on their first rejection of Him; nor until he was again preached to them risen and ascended: as the Son of David "of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh raised

66

up to sit upon his throne;" and exalted at the right hand of God, a Prince and Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel and the remission of their sins;" yea, and ready to return to them if they would even then acknowledge and receive Him, as the Apostle Peter is commissioned to offer them, saying, Acts, iii. 19, 20,-"Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come [rather " in order that the times of refreshing may come,” ὅπως ἂν ἔλθωσι] from the presence of the Lord, and He shall send [and that He may send, καὶ ἀποστείλη] Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you." Not until this testimony was also résisted, and (as the next chapter relates) those who had before crucified and slain "the Prince of Life," now proceeded to persecute the witnesses to His resurrection, so confirming hopelessly their rejection of Him, and "filling up the measure of their iniquity"-not till then was the awful threat executed. But then "the wrath came upon them to the uttermost." Jerusalem was destroyed, the Temple laid in ruins, and the nation, as at this day, scattered over the face of the globe. The type of the Kingdom of God on earth was broken up; and the sceptre of it, wrested from the people who refused to yield it, now remains with Him whose parting words to them were, "Ye shall not see me henceforth until ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord:" that is, until they be ready to welcome Him in that character which His last entry into Jerusalem had just before asserted for Him:

when He shall again come, and come in fulfilment of this prophecy, to wield the sceptre, once Judah's, as the sceptre of the now suspended, but then restored, "Kingdom of Israel."

Not that this suspension, or the departing of the sceptre in this sense, is here foretold, which were again to make an interpretation from the event: as the prophecy itself rather implies its continuance-that is, that the sceptre would remain with Judah until it should pass into the hands of the "Shiloh," under whom (as already said) its rule should be extended; the suspension that has occurred, together with its cause, not having been then revealed. Else-and it is a weighty objection to the interpretation of those who (with the learned Mede and Bishops Newton and Sherlock) treat this prophecy of Jacob as having been completely fulfilled, in that part which relates to "the sceptre," by the breaking up of the Jewish polity, and the dispersion of the nation—the patriarch pronounces a curse upon Judah and not a blessing, as the result of Shiloh's coming! Though the design is manifestly to determine to him, together with "the birth-right," " the blessing" inherited by Jacob himself, and before him by Isaac; and the context preceding and following is one continued strain of blessing, the richest that language could express. [Appendix O.]

Besides, it is a serious consideration-(and one of great moment as affecting our controversy with the Jew) that in this case, on the supposition that the sceptre of Judah has for ever departed, we fail to

show the fulfilment of the prophecy by the Shiloh of our faith. For certain it is, He has never as yet exercised the sovereignty denoted by that sceptre. He has not "reigned over the house of Jacob" as, we have seen, promised again at His birth; nor occupied "the throne of His father David" in any sense adequate to the terms of the prophecies relating to it and, in denying that He shall do so, we furnish the Jew with as many arguments from Scripture against His Messiahship as there are clear and plain predictions of these events!

That" the Shiloh" is indeed come we have proof incontrovertible in the fact that the sceptre is no longer with Judah: and for the suspension of its rule, and the curse (unforeseen by the Patriarch, and which has so long interrupted the course of his blessing), we can moreover assign a cause which the Jew cannot dispute, unless he deny that the present dispersion of his nation is a judgment,-in the fact that He whose is the sceptre "came unto His own people and they received Him not." But to assert that it has departed for ever is to say, that Judah's blessing and Jacob's prophecy shall in its main part remain, as now, for ever unfulfilled: and accordingly our Lord in His parting declaration to them (but just quoted) gave a promise that it shall not always be so; and the Apostle to whom it was specially given to expound the mystery of Israel's rejection has confirmed it, telling us (and, mark-"lest we should be wise in our own conceits,"—we who in the interval occupy their place), " that blindness in part is