lehem) from whence the king Messiah shall be revealed "in the end of days." This tradition is taken from Mich. iv, 8. On Gen. xlix, 1; "The time "(i. e. the precise time) wherein the king Messiah was "to come, was hid from him, and therefore he said, "Come, and I will declare unto you, what shall befall "you in the end of the days;" because the precise time of his coming was hidden even from the best of the prophets, unto whom the glory of the Divine Majesty was in other things revealed. Gen. xlix, 10; "Until "Shiloh come." All the three Targums agree in the application of these memorable words to the Messiah, which is an illustrious prophecy concerning him, and which the Jews, with none of their cavilling exceptions can evade.

On Exod. xii, 42; Hierusal. Targ. "Moses shall "come forth from the midst of the wilderness, and the "king Messiah from the midst of Rome." That of the Messiah coming out of Rome is Talmudical. And we may here, once for all, observe, that although they believe that their Messiah is to be a mere man, born after the manner of all other men, yet they never speak of his birth as a thing they looked for; they only speak of his coming, or most commonly of his being revealed; and their great expectation and inquiry is, when he shall be discovered and revealed. And this proceedeth out of a secret self-conviction, that he was born long since, even at the time promised and appointed; only that he is hidden from them, as, indeed, he is, though not in the sense by them imagined. But what connexion has the night of the passover with the coming of the Messiah? They cannot imagine, that he shall come to them whilst they are celebrating that ordinance, which is not lawful for them, unless they were at Jerusalem, whither they be

lieve they shall never return until he come and go before them. It is, then, from some tradition amongst them, that their deliverance out of Egypt was a type of the deliverance by the Messiah, whose sacrifice and suffering were represented in the pascal lamb, which gave occasion to this gloss. Chap. xl, 9; Targ. Jonath. "The king Messiah, who shall deliver Israel in the "end of the days." Numb. xxiii, 21; xxiv, 7, 17, 20, 24. All the Targums agree; that the Messiah is intended in these prophecies of Balaam. On those words, "There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a "sceptre out of Israel," they jointly say, "A king shall "arise out of Jacob, and the Messiah shall be anoint"ed." And an illustrious prophecy it is, no doubt, concerning his coming and dominion, who is the "root and the offspring of David, the bright and "morning star. "Likewise, Deut. xviii, 15-19. This place is an eminent prophecy concerning the Messiah, and his prophetical office; and from it, the Jews themselves (in Midrash Coheleth, cap. 1,) say, "the latter "Redeemer is to be like the former."

$19. Moreover, 1 Sam. ii, 20; Targ. "He shall "exalt the kingdom of the Messiah." 2 Sam. xxiii, 3; Targ. "He said he would appoint to me a king, "which is the Messiah, who shall arise and rule in the "fear of the Lord." Ruth iii, 15; Targ. "It was said "in the prophecy, that six righteous persons should "come of Ruth, David, and Daniel, with his compan❝ions, and the king Messiah."

$20. Again, Psal. ii, 2; Targ. "Against his Mes"siah." The Talmudists, in several places, acknowledge this psalm to be a prophecy of the Messiah, and apply sundry passages thereof to him. And those words, "Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee," are not amiss expounded by them, in Tract. Succah. cap.

v, "I will this day reveal to men, that thou art my "son;" for so are they applied by our apostle, when dealing with the Jews, Acts xiii, 33; Heb. i, 5; to his "resurrection from the dead," whereby he was declared the Son of God with power, Rom. i, 4. All the principal expositors amongst them, as Rashi, Kimchi, Aben Ezra, Bartenora, or R. Obodia, acknowledge, that their ancient doctors and masters expounded this psalm concerning the Messiah. Psal. xxi, 1; Targ. "The king "Messiah shall rejoice;" and ver. 7, Targ. "Messiah "the king." Psal. xlv, 2; Targ. "Thy beauty, O king "Messiah, is more excellent than that of the sons of "men." Psal. lxviii, and lxix, 32; in Shemoth Rabba, sect. xxxv; "All nations shall bring gifts to the king "Messiah." The same exposition is given in Midrath, Esther, cap. i, ver. 1; and R. Obodia Haggaon on the place. Psal. Ixxii, 1; Targ. "Give the sentence of thy "judgment to the king Messiah." And Rashi says of ver. 16; "Our masters interpret this of the cates, or "dainties in the days of the Messiah, and expound the "whole psalm concerning Messiah the king." It is evident, that in this psalm much light was communicated to the church of old, concerning the office, work, grace, compassion, and rule of the Messiah, with the calling and glorious access of the Gentiles to him.* Psal. lxxx, 15; "The vineyard which thy right hand hath planted; "and the branch thou hast made strong for thyself;" so our translation; but all old translations, as the Seventy, vulgar Latin, and Syriac, interpret the Hebrew term (3) not in analogy to the preceding allegory of the vine, but from ver. 17, and render it, (ex viov vp78, super FILIUM hominis,) and upon the son of man, whom thou madest strong for thyself. Targ. "And

*Vid. Midrash, on the title of Psal. Ixx, and Aben Ezra, ibid.

"for the king Messiah, whom thou hast strengthened, "or fortified, for thyself." And in ver. 17, he is expressly called () "the son of man, whom thou "madest strong for thyself." The Targum here also acknowledgeth the true Messiah, for whose sake the church is blessed, and by whom it is delivered; though Aben Ezra supposes the words may respect Messiah Ben Ephraim, an idol of their own.

§21. We are now entering on the prophets, who "testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the "glory that was to follow," 1 Pet. i, 11. I design only to report some of the most eminent places, concerning which, we have the common suffrage of the Jews in their general application to the Messiah. Among these, that of Isaiah ii, 2—4; occurs in the first place: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the "mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in "the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above "the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it; and many "people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up

"unto the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the "God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and "we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall "come forth a law, and the word of the Lord from "Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, "and shall rebuke many people, and they shall beat "their swords into ploughshares." Kimchi gives it for a rule, that the expression, "in the latter days," always denotes the times of the Messiah, which I suppose is not liable to any exception. And as he giveth a tolerable exposition of the "establishing of the mountain "of the Lord on the top of the mountains," assigning it to the glory of the worship of God, above all the false and idolatrous worship of the Gentiles, which they observed on the mountains and high places; so,

concerning those words, ver. 4, "He shall judge among "the nations," he saith, "This judge, or he that judg"eth, is the king Messiah." The like saith Aben Ezra also on the same place, and Jarchi on the same words in the prophecy of Micah. And as this is true, so, whereas Jehovah alone is mentioned in the foregoing verses, to whom and no other this expression can relate, how is it possible for them to deny that the Messiah is the Lord, the God of Jacob also? For undeniably it is he concerning whom it is said, "that he "shall judge among the nations;" and by their confession that it is the Messiah who is the Shophet, the judge, here intended, they are plainly convinced out of their own mouths, and their infidelity condemned by themselves.

We have, then, evidently in these words three articles; first, that the Messiah should be God and man; the God of Jacob, who should in a bodily presence judge the people, and send forth the law among the nations; secondly, that the Gentiles should be called to faith in him, and the obedience of his law; thirdly, that the worship of the Lord in the days of the Messiah should be far more glorious than at any time whilst the first temple was standing. Again, Isa. iv, 2; Targ. "At that time shall the Messiah of the Lord be for "joy and honor." And this prophecy is also by the most learned of the rabbins applied to the Messiah. Kimchi interprets (ny) the branch, by that of Jer. xxiii, 5; "I will raise up to David a righteous branch, "a king shall reign and prosper." Isa. ix, 6; Targ. "God the mighty one, abiding for ever, Messiah, whose "peace shall be multiplied unto us in his days." Chap. xi, 1; Targ. "And a king shall come forth from the "sons of Jesse, and Messiah shall be anointed from the sons of his sons;" i. e. his posterity. Ver. 6, Targ.