his oracle, till the very Babylonish
captivity itself, when those kings were at an end; they taking upon
them, I suppose, too much of despotic power and royalty, and too little
owning the God of Israel for the supreme King of Israel, though a few of
them consulted the prophets sometimes, and were answered by them. At the
return of the two tribes, without the return of the kingly government,
the restoration of this oracle was expected, Nehemiah 7;63; 1 Esd. 5:40;
1 Macc. 4:46; 14:41. And indeed it may seem to have been restored for
some time after the Babylonish captivity, at least in the days of that
excellent high priest, John Hyrcanus, whom Josephus esteemed as a king,
a priest, and a prophet; and who, he says, foretold several things
that came to pass accordingly; but about the time of his death, he here
implies, that this oracle quite ceased, and not before. The following
high priests now putting diadems on their heads, and ruling according to
their own will, and by their own authority, like the other kings of the
pagan countries about them; so that while the God of Israel was allowed
to be the supreme King of Israel, and his directions to be their
authentic guides, God gave them such directions as their supreme King
and Governor, and they were properly under a theocracy, by this oracle
of Urim, but no longer [see Dr. Bernard's notes here]; though I confess
I cannot but esteem the high priest Jaddus's divine dream, Antiq. B. XI.
ch. 8. sect. 4, and the high priest Caiaphas's most remarkable prophecy,
John 11:47-52, as two small remains or specimens of this ancient oracle,
which properly belonged to the Jewish high priests: nor perhaps ought we
entirely to forget that eminent prophetic dream of our Josephus himself,
[one next to a high priest, as of the family of the Asamoneans or
Maccabees,] as to the succession of Vespasian and Titus to the Roman
empire, and that in the days of Nero, and before either Galba, Otho,
or Vitellius were thought of to succeed him. Of the War, B. III. ch. 8.
sect. 9. This, I think, may well be looked on as the very last instance
of any thing like the prophetic Urim among the Jewish nation, and just
preceded their fatal desolation: but how it could possibly come to pass
that such great men as Sir John Marsham and Dr. Spenser, should imagine
that this oracle of Urim and Thummim with other practices as old or
older than the law of Moses, should have been ordained in imitation of
somewhat like