was fpread very generally among the heathens* also concerning fome great character, who was about to rife in the eastern part of the world, and attain univerfal dominion. The testimony of heathen historians satisfactorily confirms this fact; though the hopes, excited by the circumstance amongst the heathens and the Jews, tended very naturally to different, nay, oppofite conclufions. The other nations looked only for a master of the Roman world: the Jews impatiently expected a Prince, who fhould fubject that empire to the Jewish yoke†. For it is here of importance to collect, what the general fentiments of the Jews were, respecting the character and conduct of this extraordinary *This is evident, not only from the well known paffages in Tacitus and Suetonius, but from the words of Celfus also, which are cited by Lardner, Works, Vol. I. p. 133. There is a very remarkable paffage in Jofephus upon this point, quoted and commented upon by Lardner. When the city was actually taken, he fays: "But that which principally encouraged them to the war, was an ambiguous oracle, found alfo in their facred writings, that about this time fome one from their country should obtain the empire of the world. This they understood to belong to themfelves; and many of the wife men were mistaken in their judgement about it: for the oracle intended the government of Vefpafian, who was proclaimed emperor in Judæa." De Bell. Jud. lib. vi. c. 5. fect. 4. ap. Lardner, Vol. VII. p. 54. This fubject is handled in a masterly manner by Dr. White. Bampton Lecture, pp. 112—134. See allo pp. 225-233. extraordinary perfonage, at the time, when Jefus of Nazareth affumed to himself the title and office of Meffias. FROM an examination of the prophetic writings, and of the interpretations affixed to them by Jewish commentators, it appears that the Meffiah was reprefented under the titles of a prince, a judge *, and a fhepherd+: that *See the paffages quoted by Orobio in his friendly conference with Limborch, in the treatise written by the latter upon that occafion, de Verit. Chriftianæ Relig. Gouda, 1687. P. 7. Futurus erat Rex, (is Orobio's comment upon these texts) Judex, paftor: Ifrael vero neque regem vidit, neque Judicem, neque paftorem: de regno fpirituali in cœlo, de Judice in cœlo præter Deum, de paftore in cœlo, nunquam à Deo admonitus, p. 8. See Limborch's reply to this reason. ing, pp. 19-22. The objections of Orobio are repeated p. 53. and again confuted p. 192. &c. I am the more defirous of referring my reader to thefe arguments of Orobio, because they reprefent the opinions of the unbelieving Jews, at the time of our Saviour, as well as in every age which has fucceeded that period. Who can forbear exclaiming with St. Paul, that "blindnefs in part has happened to Ifrael?" Rom. xi. 25. t I would obferve, that this imagery, taken from paftoral life, has found it's way into other languages; and seems to have continued even in thofe times, when compofition, as well as manners, became refined. Hence the metaphor in Homer, war-and the comparison (11. r. 196.) Autùs δὲ, κτίλος ὡς ἐπιπωλεῖται είχας ἀνδρῶν. Pindar has πλυτος ὁ λα - χὼν ποιμένα ἐπακτὸν ἀλλότριον. ΟΙ. x. And in the ode immediately following, ufes pair in a fenfe equally figurative. Horace has complied with his mafter's practice in this respect; Regum timendorum in proprios greges, that he was to be defcended from David, upon whose throne he was to fit, and that he was to poffefs a kingdom, which should comprehend both Jews and Gentiles. THESE descriptions they applied in a literal fenfe; and as the bleffings promised under the law, were chiefly of a temporal nature, they interpreted in the same manner the paffages, which announced the future glories of the Meffiah's kingdom. They expected in confequence of these prophecies, a deliverer from present, temporal evils: a mighty prince and conqueror, who was to exceed the power of his great ancestors, David and Solomon, and not only to free the chosen people of God from the yoke under which they laboured, but to subject the other nations in their turn to the Jewish yoke. Above all, they expected him to confirm the fanctions of the Mofaic law, and to continue it's fplendid, though cumberfome*, ritual. Indeed a rooted attachment to the customs and ceremonies of their forefathers, and the belief of their unceasing efficacy, so steadfastly clung to the mind of every * See Orobio ubi fuprà, pp. 95, 115. and Limborch, pp. 305, 332, &c. K every Jew, that he could not separate them from the idea of a prophet fent from God, charged with the delivery of peculiar bleffings to his people.An union of the prophet and the prince, formed, in their judgement, a neceffary part of the character of their Meffiah: but ftill the prophetical, as well as princely, office, according to their mistaken interpretations, was to be fubfervient to temporal purposes. Ir deferves moreover to be remarked, that the fituation in which the Jews were placed, at the period of their history to which we refer, (which was during the reign of Auguftus) not only made them expect the Meffiah with confiderable impatience, but increased their natural propenfity to interpret the prophetic declarations in a manner strictly literal. For they were in a state of bondage to idolatrous * governours, a circumftance humiliating at all times to thofe, whofe ancestors had received fuch fignal marks of God's peculiar favour; and particularly fo, when the pride and rigour of the Pharifees, and other leading men of the nation, carried to it's greatest height, a bigoted and unfocial fpirit, to which, *See Lardner, Vol. VII. p. 54. which, by mistaking and perverting the plain injunctions of their law, they had fo long habituated themselves, as to render it a prominent feature in their national character. In this fenfe of deliverance from the Roman yoke, they looked for a deliverer and a redeemer: in this fenfe they expected a prince, who was to wreft the fovereignty from their prefent powerful masters: and in this favourite fenfe of fubjugation to their temporal authority, and of obedience to the Mofaic ritual, did they view the awful declarations concerning the extent of the Meffiah's kingdom among the Gentiles. THERE cannot be a plainer proof of the fact, that fuch an expectation was generally entertained by the Jews at that particular time, and that fuch was the train of ideas by which that expectation was accompa nied, than that a variety of perfons, at this very period, affumed to themselves a title and character correfponding with those notions. This of itself is a very important historical fact, and it occurs frequently in the narrative of the transactions of those times. For at what period may we ask, in the history, not of any other, but of the Jewish nation, did fo many perfons appear, affuming K 2 |