"chadnezzar carried them captive to Babylon; or when they were fubject to the Perfian and Greek monarchies, as when they were "made fubject to the Romans.

Against the fecond, of Herod, "lies the fame exception that did

against the former,-that it was too

early, being thirty years and more "before the birth of Chrift; and

more than twice as much before

"his paffion and ascension, at which "time he began his kingdom. Se

condly, that under the reign of Herod, the fceptre of Judah might "feem rather to be ADVANCED DEPARTED, forafinuch as

"than

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they had then a king of their
own, reigning over them; and,
though not of Jewish original, yet
a profelyte, and fo one of their
*
own body. And if the fceptre

were departed from Judah, because "not one of their own tribe, had "the fovereign rule over them ;

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why was it not departed all the "time the Hafmonæan, or Macca"bæan families, who were Levites, reigned? No man would say, that "the fceptre were departed from "Poland,

* Let it be remembered, likewife, that though Ephraim had long before loft it's feparate kingdom, it was united with Judah under Herod's govern

ment.

"Poland;

though the Polanders fhould choose a Swede, a German, or a Frenchman, for their king-So, neither from Judah, though a Levite, or Idumæan profelyte, were their prince.

Against the laft point of time, "the diffolution of the Jewish state by Titus, is excepted, that it is

as much too long, after either the nativity or paffion of Chrift, as "the other two were before it,"to wit,-feventy years after the one, "and near forty after the other."

He then proceeds to fhow, what is the meaning of the word Sceptre,

&c.

&c. in that prophecy. From which, he himself draws the following conclufion." The meaning, therefore, " is not, that Judah fhould never ceafe from having a king, or being a kingdom; but, that it fhould not ceafe from being a ftale, a "body politick, or common - wealth, having a POWER of

GOVERN

WITH

IN ITSELF, UNTIL MESSIAH CAME For it is certain, that Judah was fo far from being a "continued kingdom until Meffiah "fhould come, that there was no king, or royalty in that tribe, for more than two-thirds of that time, namely, not 'till David, nor after

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Zedekiah, faving that of the Maccabees, (who were Levites) and "of Herod, (by original, an Edomite) which both put together, "will not make eighty years; yet, were they never without fome RULER or RULERS of THEIR (( OWN, ALL THAT TIME."

From these quotations, then, I think, in the opinion of this excellent writer, it follows as clearly, as in any reductio ad abfurdum in Euclid, that as the departure of the fceptre from Judah, was, neither, before the time of Herod, nor foon as his time, nor yet, fo late as Titus's,-that it must have happened,

fome