od was pierced on the cross, and the water and blood of propitiation for the whole world, even - for the evil brother that smote the dear Jhofeph, (whom Ifrael loved more than all his fons, and made him a coat of many colours by Rachel, whofe firft-born he was,) flowed down in love to overtake his afflicters, Jews and Gentiles standing under his fountain. Gen. xxxvii. 3, 4. Regeneration is as physical a truth wrought by divine elements, as that of our prefent flesh is by earthly elements, from which the beastial creation take their substance and figure, into whofe world Adam by tranfgreffion fell. What will the priests fay to their master, who have been working lying wonders before the world, in fanctifying water to the mystical washing of fin? Just as much as circumcifion killed the evil defires and paffions of the old Adam; when Mofes called the Ifraelites to their face, uncircumcifed in heart and ear. Deut. x. 16-xxix. 4. notwithstanding their boast of a prepuce cut away, doing fuch marvellous things for them. The baptifm of the holy Spirit has been forgot, though introduced in a most shameful and ignorant conception in the service of every church; for the water-baptifm of John, the fervant, is not the baptifm of the holy fpirit, nor was it ever given to priests to convey, (an ufurped name at beft,) but to all who seek, afk, and knock for this ineftimable bleffing from the father on high. Matt. vii. 9-12.

It may be justly

queftioned,

queftioned, whether the Ifraelites may be fo called from the fountain, as calites are from the heavens in P/al. cxlviii. 1. according to bishop Lowth. The paffage speaks of two Lords at least derived from Ifrael; and as the pre-eminence was affigned to Fhoseph * above the eleven brethren, and to Judah alfo, as well as to Benjamin five portions more than the others, fo muft we fearch for the heads or princes, called Elohim Adonaj, among the twelve. Elohim, or Gods, is a name to a certain

The prerogatives of Jhofeph confifted in his elevation over the heads of the eleven, and even over his father and mother, which laft is hard to interpret. 2dly, he had two portions in Ezekiel's temple chap. xlvii. 13. and these make two tribes among the twelve sealed in Rev. vii. 6, 8. 3dly, his land was blessed with more diftinguished and exuberant gifts than the other tribes. 4thly, His ftone; fboam, was twice ufed; firft, on the shoulder of the high-priest, and again on his pectoral, as Abraham Ben David obferves in diff. de veftitu Sacered. Heb. c. 3. 5thly, The kingdom of Ifrael was called by his name. Ezek. xxxvii. 19. Laftly, he was buried in Sechem, which Jacob bought, which spiritually fignifies, that bis reft was on the shoulder of the high-priest near the holiness to Jehovah in the head of that wonderful character. Jof. xxiv. 1, 32. To which part, we must bring the prophecy of Isaiah chap. ix. 6. The government shall be upon his shoulder; and at chap. xxii. 22. The key of the boufe of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he Shall open, and none shall fout, and he shall shut, and none shall open. "Rev. iii. 7. These are strong marks, that Jhofeph is the real character of Jefus Chrift, the firft-born of Jacob by Rachel, the beloved wife, who was feparated from his brethren many ages past, before he came down into the great city, fpiritually called Egypt and Sodom, where Chrift, this anointed one was crucifiel. Rev.

zi. 8.

P 3

dignity

dignity of nature and perfections, afcribed to kings, judges and magiftrates in the figure of power and honour on earth, who have authority and dominion over the rest of their brethren, their fubjects and dependents. Now God cannot be called the fountain to Ifrael, but fo far as Jacob is one with Ifaac, without any wall or medium of feparation between them, as Ifaac is one with Abraham in his cave of Marpelah, the hidden effence of the duplicity, where the three patriarchs and their wives were all buried. Gen. xlix. 30. Gen. l. 13. Strange and oppofite opinions concerning the name of this cave may be seen in Joh. Nicalai L. 3. 6. 10. de fepulchris Hebræor. but the true fenfe is found in Gen.

i. 26.—v. I, 2. And by the cherub and cherub on the veil uniting the two holy places under the figures of the law. And here it may be observed, that from the frequent ufe of the God of Abraham, the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob, (plural in the Hebrew,) these three names conftitute Jehovah according to the declaration made in Exod. iii. 6. and iv. 5. That they may believe, that Jehovah the Gods of thy fathers, the Gods of Abraham, the Gods of Ifaac, and the Gods of Jacob hath been seen by thee. And this fhall be my name for the age, legnolam, and my memorial, Zichri, from generation to generation, Exod. iii. 15, 16. In the Meffiah these three witneffes, all coupled, must meet, for he is the fulness, or a perfect man of righteousness, from

the

the head of his high-priesthood to his feet, or lowest manifeftations. Selden informs us in Synt. de düs Syris. c. 3. That these three men were called Gods, and imitated in the worship of Mithras, called Triplafius and Triplex, three-fold by the Perfians. Now all the form or perfon from Abraham, Ifaac, Jacob, his twelve fons, and his feventy fouls, conftitutes one righteous Adam, or man after the heart, and full image of God: and they are all found from the two ftones on the fhoulder to the feventy bells at the hem of the high priest's garment, for the head, root or principle is Jehovah himself, and in this ground we find Jehovah, our righte oufnefs; and according to Zechariah chap. xiv. 9: Jehovah fhall be king over all the earth; and in that day Jehovah fhall be one, and his name one. The day pointed out is that, when the feventh angel fhall found, when there fhall be great voices in heaven, faying, the kingdoms of this world. are become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Chrift, and he shall reign for ages of ages. Rev. xi. 1519. The fountain of Ifrael must be found in the Spiritual Jacob, generating the twelve fons, who have each their stone to build the twelve foundations of the new Ferufalem. Among thefe fons, one muft enjoy a peculiar pre-eminence; the highest is affigned unto Jhofeph; a great privilege to Judah, and a third to Benjamin, which we shall now difcufs.

P 4

Verfe

Verle 27. Here is little Benjamin their ruler; the princes of Judah, their council; the princes of Zebulon, the princes of Naphtali.

Benjamin is named the youngest, and a little one, Katan, in Gen. xliv. 20. because he was the fon of Jacob's old age, fpiritually of his greater strength and perfection. Might he not be fon of days and of the right hand too, though Bythner denies the last conftruction? the title of the fon of old age was given to hofeph, and the ground of his father's peculiar favour is afcribed to that caufe. Gen. xxxvii. 3. We must not interpret this love from foolish fondness and doating age, but from the prophetical eye of this patriarch, who faw the fufferings of the Meffiah in this fon, as Rachel's firft-born, and his rifing again from the travailing pangs on the crofs in Benjamin, the fon of the right hand. For in the fpirit Benjamin is ftyled the fon of my ftrength, in whose birth I have put forth and finished all my power, as Hiller interprets Benoni, fon of Rachel's utmost and laft work of her womb, when the dies in the figure, as the twelfth and most perfect ftone for the new Jerufalem was compleated in him. And as Rachel called him son of her travailing pangs, the most vehement forrow spoken of by the prophets frequently as peculiar to the people of God; fo does it fignify in a secondary sense firength, and therefore say the spiritual Jews, Jacob changed