"Confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work will perform it, until the day of Jesus Christ." Phil. 1:6
F.R.A. Glover: Having now brought into prominence those footfalls of the presence of the Blood Royal of the Privileged Race of Judah, which, occurring in the records of Ireland and Scotland, tend to prove the fact that the indestructible Race was really imported into the Islands of the Sea, - the name by which the Hebrews know and still designate these countries, - it remains to show that the present occupant of the English throne is the lineal descendant of her, who is concluded to have accompanied the Prophet Jeremiah, when seeking a land where to plant the Stem and to build the House of dislodged Judah, although we may have no genealogical table of names to attest and illustrate the fact. [JML: This was provided a few years later by Mr. Grimaldi].
As the possession of the Pillar of Witness, and of the outward and visible sign of the House of Judah, would be no substitute for the Seed of David; .. and as no guarantee that could have been offered would have been sufficient as a physical substitute, in the absence of such material fact, had the Seed of David not been visibly present when the Stone was set up at Tara, to assure those present of the possibility of the allegations made, in the promise recorded in the Legend of the Stone; .. so, the presence of a Royal Stem, at the time of the inauguration of the Stone, would be no proof to us, that the present occupant of the throne of these realms is the lineal descendant of the Princess of Judah then present, - and whose name is conjectured to have been Tamar, - unless a reliable pedigree of descents from that time to the present were producible; or, what would be still more reliable, such circumstantial evidence of the fact, as tends to establish the certainty of it, more assuredly than any list of names in a genealogy could. A genealogical list of names might be interesting; but such list would afford no proof.
It is one of the great elements in the controversy of the Jew with the Christian, that the genealogy presented to our belief in the Gospels, is not to be relied on : inasmuch as, they allege, that, after the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, the Jewish people bad become, and still became, so mixed with the foreigner, and the confusion in the descents arising from other causes was so great, that certainty in their pedigrees was utterly an impossibility: and that, consequently, the genealogies offered by the Evangelical Records of the descents of Joseph and of the Blessed Virgin, from David the King, carry no conviction along with them to those conversant with the realities of the case.
In ordinary cases, to prove the claim to a lapsed peerage, as amongst ourselves, or right of succession to an estate, a complete genealogical tree of descents may be a legal necessity. But, He who commended Himself to the acceptance of Man in Judea, needed no genealogical tree to prove to those among whom He walked, that the Carpenter's Wife's Son Who stood before them, low though He was in earthly station, was King of Israel, Lord of the Temple, and thence, the looked-for Prince of Judah, the Son of David (John 7:42).
The genealogical tree of our Lord's descent from the Stem of Jesse, is, to us, no moral necessity. The proof of its correctness lies, not in the succession of names so much as in this: viz. that we know, that, under the circumstances, that alleged fact, that Jesus of Nazareth was of the Lineage of David, must be so. As a cavilling point for the Jew, who is compelled to catch at any thing to justify an untenable position, his allegation is much for him to lay hold of and insist upon. But what Christian now troubles himself, if any ever did, to think about the written genealogies as a proof of that which is proved to him in fifty ways without them? Nevertheless, there was a line of descents; and, doubtless, the genealogies presented to us are correct: but the case, as it now exists, does not require, even if it ever did, genealogies, as an element towards making up faith in the truth of the mission of Jesus Christ.
The genealogies are unnecessary for the substantiation of the faith of any body. Belief in the truth of them is just as much a matter of faith, as is the great fact to which the Jew would make the truth of each an essential accessory. Who is to know how true they are, either as physical or moral proofs in what they allege, but as one takes them as presented? The fact is proved, not by the genealogy, or its assumed correctness, but by the circumstances of the case having proved that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of David. So in this case a genealogical tree, though one might construct such an interesting detail of names, would afford no such proof of reality of the fact of the right successor always filling up rightly, the line of descents, if it were ever so authentic, as the circumstances of the case themselves: they make it absolutely certain that the thing required, existed. It did so, because it must have done so.
The Law of Succession, in those rude monarchies of Scotia Major and Minor, was, that, on the death of the monarch, the fittest man of the Sept was elected. ("The tribe or clan, however numerous, comprised each but one family, of which the chief was elective, though always chosen from a particular stock." - O'Driscoll's Ireland, p. 389.) But he was always a Sept's-man; a system which produced, perhaps, much blood-shedding, and sometimes fratricide; but such was the case. ("The inheritance descendeth not to the son [when a minor, subaudi], but to the brother, nephew, or cousin-germaine, eldest or most valiant; for the childe being oftentimes left in nonage, and otherwise young and unskilfull, were never able to defend his patrimonie; being his no longer than he could hold it by force of arms. But by that time he grew to a competent age, and have buried an uncle or two, he also taketh his turne and leaveth it in like order to his posterity." - Spenser's Ireland.) The contention was, however, always confined to the Royal Stock. In the event of a king leaving minors, the next eldest brother of the deceased king, if he was fit, was elected and crowned king; and he was a king, bona fide: a king, not until the minor came of age, but for life; as they held that a king, once a king could not be un-king-ed. On his death, however, the succession reverted, as a matter of course, to the eldest son or heir-proper of the former king; and so on: so that, in that manner, were the royal stock always preserved for, and presented to, the people.
This was the Scottish rule, which came in with Fergus; and he brought with him from Ireland, we may be sure, all the family traditions and use: the man who would not attempt any landing in Scotland to establish his rule, without the family Stone and the family Standard, was not likely to intermit the usages of his race, or neglect any family tradition.
Not however to compare small things with great, as the facts in the one case substantiate the descent, so must the facts in this case be the proof, that the genealogy is unbroken, though it be not forthcoming. If the Jews' allegation be worthy of disproof, "the day" will make all clear. So will "the day" likewise declare if this be the truth. The Providence that brought the Seed Royal to Ireland is equal to the completing of whatever work It pleases to take in hand. If the Stone, which is the symbol of that Providence towards the Throne of Jacob, and the Standard of Judah, have been manifestly preserved to this Royal Family of England, we need not doubt but that the other essential to the identification of its state with that of Judah, as the full and efficient representative of the Royal House, has been equally preserved.
The Prophet Jeremiah was "to plant and to build" a kingdom. When did he do it? and where?
To the throne of David was promised an everlasting duration. Where do we see it?
The sceptre of Judah was to continue with Judah till Shiloh should come. Where is the sceptre of Judah to be seen?
But Shiloh is come! If He be come, where was the Sceptre of Judah visible after the Babylonish Captivity in the Restoration? There was no king in Judah: the Maccabees were Levites: Herod was an Edomite : and Jerusalem was in bondage one hundred and eighty-seven years to the Malum Regnum [JML: evil rule] before Christ appeared. Has the prophecy then failed?
But, if Shiloh has come, He has not been manifested. In the sense promised, He has not come. He to whom "the gathering of the People" is to be, is not in presence: in the sense therefore to satisfy "the people," Jesus Christ, as the Shiloh, is to them, unintelligible. To the Christian Mind, which can see through the enigma, certainly, Jesus is the veritable Shiloh, .. the Light that shineth in the dark place, to the illuminated mind of man. But to the Human Body, He is not: nor, in that sense, will He be, until "the gathering of the People" shall be the accomplished fact of the Future. Has then the prophecy failed? Impossible! Where then is the indefeasible Sceptre of Judah?
In Ireland, the Witness for Truth was set up in the words of Isaiah, and in the spirit of Jeremiah, and in the Type of the Shiloh, by one who was accompanied by a Mysterious Woman from the East, with a Royal Prosperous Smile, in, and for, and by whom were done things which are unaccountable altogether under any other supposition save the one, viz., that she was such a woman as the exigency of this hypothesis requires. If she, after whom the place Tamar was named, were a Hebrew Princess, the case is clear. The Seed of Judah, in the Providence of God, came hither, and, by the same Providence, has been preserved. If there was a purpose in its having been brought, the purpose is fulfilling; and the Legend of the Stone points to it: and, in this fulfillment, two illustrious prophecies are manifestly meeting their's: the prophecy of the Perpetuance of the Sceptre of Judah, and the promise of the Unfailing Throne of David.
Under any other hypothesis, we are still to seek for their manifestation and fulfillment. With respect to the prophecy of the Sceptre of Judah (Gen. 49:10), all that has been said and written about that in the attempt to prove that it has been fulfilled, is mere accommodation, if not mystification; altogether unworthy the reputation of those who have attempted it: ingenuity having been made largely to supply the deficiency of fact. The attempt arose doubtless in a sort of nervous anxiety of man to prove that God is as good as His Word. It has, however, pleased the Lord, for His own all-gracious purpose, "to hide Himself." May He not do this if He will? (Isa. 45:15) We need not fear. "Hath the Lord spoken, and shall He not bring it to pass? Hath He said, and shall He not do it?" (Num. 23:19) We must bide the Lord's time.
It is a great mistake, and something more perhaps, to attempt to hasten an interpretation. A false interpretation by a great name, is not only bad because it is false; but, because it is mischievous in proportion as men are satisfied with it. Like the great Newton's avowed fiction, which he offered as a substitute for the True Theory of the Tides, and which, unduly elevated by unreasoning admirers of his great name, acts not only as a screen to keep men from seeking further after that as yet undiscovered fact, but causes those who do to be scorched by accusations of conceit and presumption for daring to think in the line in which he thought without effect; so, the great names of those who have discovered that the Sceptre of Judah is no sceptre at all but a Tribe; and of others, that Levi and Edom, and the malum regnum of the Latins for one hundred and eighty-seven years, was the domination of the Tribe of Judah; and of all, that Shiloh has come to and restored Judah and Israel; while, manifestly, the coming of the Lord in humiliation [JML: as opposed to a Messiah in conquering glory] being the cause of the dispersion of the one, and Israel not being yet allowed to be in presence at all, is a proof that the prophecy is misread: .. all this constitutes such a confusion of names, and things, and fancies, inconsistent with, and so contradictory of, one another, as shows, that nothing but the Exigency of System could have induced the production of so many antagonistic facts as, or by way of, proof of the fulfillment of the promise. And, so long as men are content to take up with such unintelligible fulfilments of a very plain assertion, so long will the Vision of Truth, as it is acted out upon the common-place stage of the earth's theatre, though visible to those whose minds are not preoccupied by the conviction that the prophecy of the Peace of the Shiloh, has been accomplished by War, and Woe, and False Manifestations of God's Truth for 2300, or for 1800, or 1260 years, - be utterly invisible to those whose judgment is led astray by false interpretations of great men.
But if, indeed, the Sceptre of Judah and its prophesied continuance can be thus sublimated away, where are we to find the Indestructible Throne of David? Is it in 'Change Alley? [JML: the London stock exchange] - or in the Jew's Quarter in Frankfort? [JML: with the Rothschilds] Is money, or money-dealing the foundation or manifestation of the Throne which was never to be without an occupant of the Stem of Jesse? Where then is it?
I say, under any other hypothesis than that which the case of England exhibits to men's astonished eyes, as in the details here presented to them, we are still to seek for the manifestation of their fulfillment, as a now present reality, on the earth. Where is the Perpetual Sceptre of Judah? Where is the Indestructible Throne of David?
All things are possible with God: and such a manifestation of fulfilled prophecy and promise may be possible, apart from the present circumstances of the British Empire. But it is difficult to the human mind to conceive how, on the one hand, on the face of the earth, such a fulfillment could be presented to man, other than the State of Britain presents; and, on the other, how at the same time, the things which have led to these conclusions could have come together, and thus clustered themselves, and thus strangely, by chance that the Elements of the Remnant of Judah should be collected into one place, and belong, to one power; .. and, as would be, in the future-expected state of things, fitting, that power, the greatest on the earth; .. whose Monarch is seated on a Throne, which her, people insist on calling Jacob's Pillow; and over whose head waves, in sight of all the world, in every Sea, on every Continent, and in all the Corners of the Earth, the Lion of the Irish and Scottish Kings, which is, the Standard of the Tribe of Judah!
From: "England, the Remnant of Judah, and the Israel of Ephraim", written by F.R.A. Glover, M.A., Chaplain to the Consulate at Cologne. Published by Rivingtons, London, 1861. Based on research commenced in 1844.