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lon. During this period God oftentimes gave them signal deliverances; but these were not effected by their great forces, but by his interposition; see 2 Kings xviii. 23. It appears then that David was the last of the rulers over Israel who observed the law against multiplying horses; and he was the last who pretended to be a deliverer of the people. This truth seen by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews xi. 32–34. But it may be asked, were the kings of Judah and Israel punished for having horses and chariots in their armies? does not Scripture charge them with idolatry and other crimes? Answered, true it does: but was it not a crime thus to multiply horses and chariots? The shortest answer to the question will be to examine what their own prophets say with respect to this cause of their ruin: see Isaiah ii. 6. 7. xxxi. 1. Hosea xiv. 3. Having seen then what the law, and the prophets, and the experience of ages had taught the Jews to think of their princes and their martial preparations, let us look back to the prophecy relating to the Messias, Zech. ix. 9. Here the king foretold was to save the people. Consider what sort of a king it was probable that God would send to save them. Would he be like those who had undone them, or those who had been deliverers of their country? The king foretold was also to be just, meek, and lowly could he have deserved this character had he appeared in the pomp of war, with horses and chariots, in opposition to God's law? Or could he bring salvation by those means which God had forbidden? Hence it may be seen how essential it was to the character of such a king of Israel to come as he was foretold. If any doubt remain, see what immediately follows: and I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem. To the same purpose speaks Hosea i. 7. and Micah v. 10. 11. These passages support each other, and show what the prophet Zechariah had in view. It is shown that there is nothing in all this to excite the ridicule of unbelievers. Some reflexions hence

arise. First, the law given to the kings of Israel, considered with the history of that nation, forms a very strong presumption for the divine original of the law of Moses: this explained. Secondly, we may collect from hence the nature of David's crime in numbering the people: this explained. Thirdly, it may be a doubt whether king Josiah was not guilty of the same fault in his warlike preparations against the king of Egypt: this also explained.

DISSERTATION IV.

CHRIST'S ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM.

THE circumstances of this piece of Scripture history are well known, and not less to those who despise than to those who receive the gospel. My intention is to consider the prophecy relating to this fact, as it stands in Zechariah, chap. ix. ver. 9.; and though the subject of this dissertation has no immediate relation to the preceding discourses, yet it may not perhaps be improper to subjoin to them the explication of a passage, which is sure always to find its way into every conversation or controversy on this subject of prophecy.

There is indeed no circumstance relating to the Messiah that has given occasion to more profane wit and ridicule than this now before us. We reckon an ass to be a contemptible creature; and a man, especially a man of character, riding on an ass, to be a ridiculous figure. These are prejudices of our time and country; and when they who look no farther than to the manners and customs which are before them, examine this part of sacred story by the standard of modern prejudices, they see, or think they see, something quite inconsistent with the gravity and dignity of the person pretending to be king of the Jews, when Christ is represented entering in triumph into Jerusalem mounted on an ass.

But contemptible as an ass, or a man riding on an ass, may be at present, from the beginning it was not so. In many countries, and particularly in Judea, persons of the highest distinction were usually so mounted. The governors of Israel are described in the song of Deborah as riding on white asses: Judg. v. 10. And the thirty sons of Jair, who was judge and prince over Israel twenty-two years, are said to ride on thirty asses: Judg. x. 4. And another judge of Israel is recorded to

have had forty sons and thirty nephews that rode on seventy ass colts: Judg. xii. 14.

Were it at all necessary, it would be easy to confirm this observation with many more authorities; but this passage of Scripture will furnish other inquiries, and of a more serious consideration.

For supposing it to have been a usual thing to ride on an ass, how comes this usual thing to be mentioned in relation to the Messiah as a mark of distinction? Might not the prophet on this supposition as well have said, he should come walking on foot? And would he not have been as well known by one character as by the other? Besides,

If you turn to the book of Zechariah, where this prophecy is to be found, you will see the person there described to be a king, a just king, and one having salvation: and what is there in this character of riding on the foal of an ass that is peculiar to a king, to a just king, and to one who was to bring salvation and deliverance to his people?

If we look into the present or into the ancient world, we shall not find reason to appropriate this character to kings: those of Egypt, Assyria, and of other nations neighbors to Judea, rode in another manner: much less shall we be able to find any connexion between the justice and ability of a prince to save his people, and this circumstance of riding on the foal of an ass.

Since then this prophetical character can never be accounted for by considering the state and condition of kings in general, there must needs have been something very peculiar in the circumstances of a king of Israel, on which the propriety of this character is founded.

I shall therefore endeavor to trace out this peculiar circumstance, and to set this prophecy in a proper light; which has been very greatly abused, and, perhaps, only because it has been very little understood.

If we look into the history of the rise and fall of nations, we shall generally find that their prosperity and success have borne some proportion to their force and power, and to the conduct and ability of their leaders; but with the Jews, who from slaves in Egypt, became a great and powerful people, the case

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was not so. The best and greatest of their kings, and he whỏ carried the empire to the greatest height, has left us another account of their affairs. 'The people,' says he, 'got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favor unto them :' Psal. xliv. 3. When we read this and other like sages, we are apt to ascribe them to the piety and devotion of the Psalmist, and to look on them only as acknowlegements of God's general providence in the affairs of the world; and this makes us apt to overlook, or not sufficiently to attend to, the historical truth which they contain. It is true, indeed, that all success may in a just sense be ascribed to God; that it is he who giveth victory unto kings, but yet he ordinarily makes use of natural means; and it is no offence to his providence, that princes list their thousands of horse and foot to secure themselves and their dominions. But with the Jews it was otherwise they were never so weak as when they made themselves strong; never so certainly ruined, as when their force was great enough to create in them a confidence in themselves. For God had taken the defence of Israel on himself; and whenever the people took it out of his hands, and placed it in their own, they were sure to be undone.

Nay, so tender was God of his honor in this respect, and so concerned to justify his promise to defend Israel in the eyes of the world, that he would not always permit natural causes to interfere in their deliverance, lest the people should grow doubtful to whom they should ascribe their victories. When Gideon stood up to deliver the people from the Midianites, he raised an army of thirty-two thousand men : God refused to go forth with so great an host, and the reason given for it is this: the people that are with thee, are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me:' Judges vii. 2. Accordingly, the thirty-two thousand were reduced to three hundred, and by them the host of Midian was overthrown.

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To come nearer to our present purpose. For the same reason it was that God would not permit the people to have horses and chariots of war for their defence; not because they

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