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city. The first of them was similar to that of the woman, namely, that the Samaritans were in expectation of the Messiah; but the second gave a new view of his character. He was to come according to the apprehensions of the people of Sychar, not only in the capacity of a preacher or teacher of religion, but as the Saviour of the world; and here it may be remarked, that the word "world," used in this place, does not mean, as it often does in the new Testament, the little petty world of Judea but the whole inhabited world, consisting of Gentiles as well as Jews. Thus the Samaritans, who had less means of light, appear to have had a more accurate knowledge than their proud neighbours the Jews, of the true character of the Messiah.

A report was also very current among the nations of the East at that time, that a great personage was to make his appearance whom all the world should obey. It will be only necessary to quote the words of two such respectable and learned authors as Tacitus and Suetonius, to prove this. "Pluribus persuasio inerat antiquis sacerdotum literis contineri, eo ipso Tempore fore, ut valesceret Oriens, profectique Judæa rerum Potirentur." (Tacit: His. L. 5. P. 621. "Percrebuerat Oriente toto vetus & constans opinio esse in fatis, ut co tempore Judæa

Profecti rerum potirentus." (Sueton: in vit: Vesp: c. 4.) These writers, we see, speak nearly the same language as to the point in question. Both agree in this, that the great personage here alluded to should have universal dominion. Both agree that he was to come out of Judæa. Both agree that the belief thus entertained was not merely common but very current in the East; indeed Suetonius says, throughout the whole East, which would include Egypt, the three Arabias, Palestine, Syria, Assyria, Chaldea, Babylonia and other countries. Both agree again in this, that it was a belief of ancient standing, and Suetonius farther explains it by the word "constans," from which we may infer that the subject was then constantly talked of, or that there was no variation in men's opinions concerning it.

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Nor was this notion confined to them. It was entertained by many at Rome a few years before Jesus Christ was born, where an expectation prevailed at that time, that some great man was about to make his appearance who should be a King or Emperor, and who should hold a beneficent dominion over the whole world. But as I shall go very largely into this subject, in another part of this work, I shall content myself at present with having barely mentioned the fact.

CHAPTER II.

On the particular way in which the Jews obtained their particular notions on this subject.

Having now shewn the different notions which were entertained by the different people mentioned, as to the character of the extraordinary person who was expected to come upon earth, I shall endeavour to point out the way in which each of them obtained his own particular notion, and this in the order in which I noticed them in the last chapter.

The Jews acquired their knowledge of the extraordinary person who was expected in the world and of the time of his coming by a perusal of the books of Moses, and of those other books which form, what we usually call the Old Testament. If a Jew, living before the time of our Saviour, had the Pentateuch on his hand, he could not fail of being struck, before he had gone over the first three chapters of Genesis, with the

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prophecy which God delivered to our first parents when he denounced the curse upon the serpent. He would see there, that God created man in his own image, but that he fell soon afterwards from innocence into sin; and that on account of this sin, he incurred an awful sentence, which made a most melancholy change as to his privileges and condition. He would see also that the serpent or the deceiver was degraded and punished, but at the same time that a prospect was held out to Adam and his posterity, that some one of the seed of his wife should spring up at a future time, who should bruise the deceiver's head, that is, subdue the deceiver, and thus deliver them from the dominion of sin. Hence this Jew would do as the other Jews actually did; he would draw from the prophecy two characters of him who was to come; for if he was to subdue the serpent, he would view him in the light of a conqueror; and if this serpent was supposed to be Satan, he would consider him as a deliverer from sin and evil.

But there were other prophecies in the Pentateuch, which described the character of the same personage. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gather

ing of the people be." Gen. c. 49, v. 10. By Shiloh the Jews understood the Messiah, and by the people (which ought to have been translated peoples,) they understood, and very properly, all the nations of the earth, the Gentiles as well as themselves. But the prophecy says that in his time, the time of Shiloh, this great gathering of the nations was to take place. How then did the Jews understand it? They interpreted it according to their own prejudices. They had been accustomed to consider the Gentiles as little better than dogs; they were neither to eat nor to drink with them. Indeed Moses for wise purposes had made a partition-wall between the two. They could not therefore comprehend how such a gathering, that is, how such a union of nations could be effected except by conquest; and as this was very gratifying to their pride, they believed that the Gentiles were to be brought under their government, and hence the notion that their Messiah was to hold dominion over the whole world.

Another prophecy in the Pentateuch, which would give the Jews new views of the character of their Messiah, is that remarkable one by Moses himself in the wilderness. "The Lord, thy God, will raise up unto thee a prophet from

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