The time of Clirist's advent being thus clearly ascertained, let us consider,
II. The consequences of it —
The last clause of the text is by some applied to Judah, to whom the tribe of Benjamin was attached, and the few of the other ten tribes, who returned after their dispersion by the Assyrians, were gathered1'. But the sense of that clause is both more clear, and infinitely more important, as applied to Shiloh. And, if it be understood, as it may well be, as a further limitation of the time beyond which Judah should not retain this power, it will mark, with most astonishing accuracy, the precise period at which his sceptre was to depart.
But, taking it according to its general acceptation, it declares the calling of the Gentiles to the knowledge of Christ —
[The Scriptures speak much upon this glorious subject. Without noticing the innumerable passages that declare God's intention to convert the Gentiles, we will confine our attention to two or three that speak of it almost in the very same terms as those in the text. Isaiah, representing Christ as standing for an ensign to the people, says, " To him shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious '." There was a remarkable prophecy to the same effect unwittingly uttered by Caiaphas the high-priest. While he designed nothing more than to in- stigate the Jews to destroy Jesus, God overruled his mind to declare that Jesus should die for the whole world, and should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad k. Our Lord himself also, foretelling the same glorious event, said, " I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me1." Nor is only the mere circumstance of their conversion declared in the text ; the manner also of their coming to him is strongly intimated. They " shall be a willing people in the day of God's power," and as the prophet describes at large, shall fly to him as a cloud, or as doves to their windows"1.]
This part of the prediction also has received, and is daily receiving, its accomplishment —
[No sooner had our Lord given up the Ghost, than the centurion, the first fruits of the Gentiles, was led to acknow- ledge him as the Son of God. Presently, not Judea only, but
h 1 Chron. ix. 3. i Isai. xi. 10. k John xi. 52.
1 John xii. 32. «" Isai. Ix. 3— S.
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