Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith, which worketh by love." (Gal. v. 1-6.) Then will Jew, as well as Gentile, as one fold under one Shepherd, join the blessed Apostle Paul in his devout exclamation of rapture" O! the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" "For who hath known the mind of the Lord, and who hath been his counsellor ?" "or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again!"

(Who indeed shall presume to call the Lord his debtor for works of the law which he has performed? He, and He only, is our righteousness. For)" of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To whom be glory for ever. Amen!" (Romans xi. 33-36.

SECTION XXVII.

Jacob's prophetic address to Benjamin, and the blessing of Moses on his tribe.

We have, at some length, endeavoured to shew the very important prophetic character, in which Rachel, as the mother of Joseph, the heir of the promise, was "the right-hand" of Israel. The whole scope of the Almighty's gracious scheme of redemption is now so far accomplished, that we can clearly perceive, why Jacob preferred the name of Benjamin (the son of his right-hand,) to that affecting term, which Rachel herself bequeathed to her last-born son with her dying breath-namely "Benoni "-(the son of pain and sorrow.)

In Benjamin, personally, we contemplate little more than the privileges, which he derived from his birth, as own brother to Joseph. Nevertheless, like all the other sons of Jacob, he is made the subject of a figurative prediction by his Father. "Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf.

In the morning, he

shall devour the prey; and at night, he shall divide the spoil." The accomplishment of this will, probably, be found in the temporal incidents, which attach to the history of Benjamin's tribe in the land of Canaan. There is no figure, which can represent more strikingly, fierce, insatiable, and merciless brutality, than that, which Jacob adopted, to indicate the future crimes of Benjamin's posterity. They were to to ravin, as a wolf." The prey was to be devoured, and the spoil divided." The enormities, perpetrated by the "sons of Belial," who were men. of Gibeah, which belongeth to Benjamin, exceeded, in atrocity and abomination, the conduct of the inhabitants of Sodom against Lot, to which they bore a very remarkable analogy. The account of these abominations is recorded in the 19th chapter of the book of Judges.

The wretched victim of their violence and cruelty, the prey, whom they had devoured,-was literally divided by the Levite, with whom she lived, in consequence of their atrocity, into "twelve pieces," and sent, as a testimony of their horrible outrage, "into all the coasts of Israel."

This unspeakable crime may well have been denounced, before hand, in the spirit of prophecy, by Jacob; as, in the instances of Simeon and Levi, he had declared, that "instruments of cruelty were in their habitations, and that, therefore, he would divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel."

But, though the sentence of Jacob upon Benjamin seemed to refer to the temporal crimes, which should be perpetrated by that tribe: and was rather a denunciation than a blessing; still, as the son of Rachel, and the brother of Joseph, he was identified with their spiritual and prophetic, blessings. These, although not noticed by his Father, are the subject of the blessing by Moses in the 33rd chapter of Deuteronomy. "And of Benjamin he said, the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders." The horrible iniquities, to which we have referred, were visited by the just retribution of God's vengeance. At the battle of Gibeah, the Israelites "inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trod them down with ease. So that all, which fell that day, of Benjamin, were twenty-and-five-thousand men, that drew the sword. And the men of Israel turned upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beasts, and all that came to hand also they set on fire all the cities that they came to."

(Judges xx.) But, it was not to be, that " one tribe should be lacking in Israel." "The children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, there is one tribe cut off from Israel this day!" So severe had been the chastisement, so complete the judgment executed upon Benjamin, that their women

were utterly destroyed; and "Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife." Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing that the women are destroyed out of Benjamin. Howbeit, we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed be he, that giveth a wife to Benjamin." To prevent the entire destruction of Benjamin's tribe, the elders of Israel instigated, and connived at, the forcible seizure by the Benjamites of the daughters of Shiloh, when they came forth, to dance at the yearly feast of the Lord. "So the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught. And they went, and returned to their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them." (Judges xxi.)

Thus, the tribe of Benjamin, having expiated their crimes by suffering a punishment, which threatened the entire extinction of their race, became, as it were, purified, and renewed by an alliance with the daughters of "Shiloh."

As Jerusalem was the seat of the temple, and of the kingdom of the tribe of Judah, by virtue of their privilege, as the root of Messiah's genealogy-so Shiloh was the seat of the tabernacle, in the portion of Ephraim, by virtue of Joseph's birthright of the promise. Consequently, there could be no connec