The Prora fed Ebeliah long fince come. 4..5 ttx t, rurill it comes, fignifies, when it /hall be no more : The application of that word t he kiting of the Sun, teCtors rslt and the Sungoeth down, is clearly from the na- ture 01 the thing it felf > and the preceding words, wöwrt nit, the Sun riigth, but thence to draw it here toexprefs the defiruttion of a City ; in which fenfe it is never ufèd, is a Conceit purely Rabbinical?. Betides, we have "hewed already that Scepter end Law-giver could in no feulebe Eäid to abide with Judah- until' David carne ; for ijefore his dates that Tribe had no efpecial intereft in Government at all. But this catching at relief fromaword, no way fuited to contribute the lean afsiflance in the cafe in hand, is as firong an Argument of a defperate finking caufe, which ra- ther than men will foregoe, they will reach after Helps from the Ihaddow ofthe leaf} twigg,that teems tobenigh unto them. I "hall not contend with him about what he nextly affects, namely that this untill, doth not prove the ceafingofRule andGovern- ment when theShilo comes. Its enough for us, that it was not to ceafe before it came; as "hall further be manifefted in our enfüing Explication and Vindication ofthis Pro- phetic. I haveonly by the way more particularly confidered the Evafions of this man, who is called amonglt the Mzffers of the prefcnt Judaical Profelion, thefrig, that theReader may know what thoughts to entertain concerningthe Expotitions and Objedionsof othersofthem, who have not attained that reputation. Thefubjeei here fpokenof is Judab ; and that not as meetly declaring the perfónof the fourthSon ofJacob; but the Tribe and Family that (prang, and was to fpring fromhim. So aré thewhole Tribes every where called in Scripture by the name of him from whom they fprarrg; and that principally from the Prophelie and Blefsing in this Chapter, wherein the common ftreamofPatriarchalblefsing, hitherto runningin One channel), is divided into twelve branches ; each Son. ofJacob beingcontlituted'a di- (find fpringof Benediction untohis poliesity. Now that the Tribe ofJudah and not his perfón, but only asfrom him the whole "received its denomination; andas he is included therein is intended in this Prophefie, is evident. For ( 1. ) The things-mentioned in this great Patriarchal Benedicdion were fisch, as thould befall the Poaérityof his Children, to whom he fpakeO' srtnrIrtS11 in the latter days ; or in the end of the Jaye:, as were all the blefngs of them that went before Jacobalfó. Now that exprefsioningeneral lignally denotes the times ofMer. fiiah,as we (hall afterwards declare, and as bath in part already beck made manifell. And as it relates inparticular unto anyoftheTribes, it denotes the whole continu- ance oftheir times untill that realm should be accomplithed.. So that it cannot be re- ftrainedunto theperfons of anyof them. ( a. ) Nothing that is fp;iken of any'of the ré(k of the Sons ofJacob, belonged unto themperfonallr, no though it had its founda- tion in their perfons, or in anallufion unto their perjonal Aelings.. Thus the dividing ofSimeon and Levi iii Jacob, andthe feattering of them in Ifrael, belonged not unto their, perfons, though what befell their poflerity of that nature , had a fpecial eye unto theit perfonal mifcarriage, v.5,6,7. Neither was any thing here fpoken ofJudah. in any meafure fulfilledin his perfon, who fpent his dates in ARgypt, without any pre-emi- nence among his Brethren, or Rule with Conquel, and terror like a Lion oven others. It is then theFamily, Tribe, or Pollerity ofJudab that by that name is here intended. Now thisTribe ofJudabmay be confidered either abfolutely inits feif, as it was in its feparated Rations andcondition inthe Wildernefs; without the mixture ofany not. of his poflerity, or with refpeét unto that aeceffion which was afterwards made unto it 6ccafionally from theether Tribes. And this was fourfold : lira, From the Lot of Simeon falling within its lot in the firft inheritance of the Land, Jofh. 19. 1. whence that Tribe, though Bill. keepingitsdiflint} Genealogie, was reckoned unto Judah, and became one peoplewith them. Secondly, Bythe cleaving of the Tribe of Benjamin, whole lot laynext unto it; and mixed with it in the veryCity of the Kingdom, to the reigning houle ofDavid in the fatal divifion of the people, 1 Kings 12.20,21,27. 'upon which both thofe Tribes were after called by the name of Judah, v. zo. and the people ofboth =slim Jade' or Jews Thirdly, By the falling- oil of the Tribe ofLevi, with multitudes of other goodmen unto it out of all the Tribes of Ifrael, upon the Idolatriesand perfècution ofJeroboam; 2 Chron. rt. 13,14, 15, 16, 17. verfs, by which means that one Tribe quickly became more numerous and potent then all the tea. Fourthly, By the mixture and addition of thofe great numbers which out of all the Tribes of /from/ joyned themfelves unto them upon their return from Babylon, and the rellitution of the WorfhipofGod amonglt them in its proper place.. Now it is U Judah 4 9-
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