of his enemies reserving them for the noblest purposes. Zechariah teaches us, that even so much as a third part shall be spared. These may be supposed to be less hardened in wickedness than their associates; and to have taken a part in the expedition, either through the inveterate prejudices of a Popish education (the expedition having been blessed and sanctified by the false prophet), or through the tyrannical compulsion which we have already beheld Antichristian France begin to exercise over her degraded allies. Nor will they only be spared: plucked as brands out of the burning, they will likewise be converted by the mercy of God to a zealous profession of genuine Christianity.

Thus wonderfully preserved and converted, they will become proper instruments to accomplish the yet unfulfilled purposes of the Most High. Scattered over the face of the whole earth, they will carry every where the tidings of their own defeat, of the marvellous power of the Lord, and of the restoration of Judah. Meanwhile there is some reason to suppose, that the awful apparition of the Shechinah will still remain suspended over Jerusalem, visible at once from its stupendous height to a whole hemisphere, and bearing ample attestation to the veracity of the fugitives*. Nor

will

* I apprehend it was from passages of this import, that Mr. Mede supposed that the Jews would be converted by a supernatural manifestation of Christ. Had he said the ten tribes,

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will they carry their message in vain. Judah is indeed restored: but the lost ten tribes of Israel are still dispersed through the extensive regions of the north and of the east. These, according to the sure word of prophecy, however they may be now concealed from mortal knowledge, will be found again, and will be brought back into the country of their fathers. All nations and all tongues shall come and see the glory of the Lord; for he will set among them a sign, even the sign of the Son of man, the sign of the illuminated Shechinah; and will send unto them those that have escaped from the slaughter of the Antichristian confederacy, that they may declare his glory among the nations. Convinced by ocular demonstration that God doth indeed reign in Zion, and at once divinely impelled and enabled both to seek out from among them and to find the long-lost sheep of the house of Israel, they will bring by land, in vast caravans, all the brethren of Judah for an offering unto the Lord, as the great maritime power had already brought the converted Jews for a present unto the Lord to his holy mountain. Then shall the stick of Joseph be united for ever with the stick of Judah: Ephraim shall be no more a separate people: but the whole house of Jacob shall become one nation under one king, even the mystic David, Jesus the Messiah.

The

tribes, instead of the Jews, I believe he would have approached very near to the truth.

The various prophecies, which speak of the restoration of the ten tribes, certainly cannot relate to the restoration of those detached individuals out of thern, who returned with Judah from the Babylonian captivity. This is manifest, both because their restoration is represented as perfectly distinct from the restoration of Judah, and because it is placed at once subsequent to that event and to the overthrow of Antichrist. In fact, the converted fugitives from the army of Antichrist are described as being greatly instrumental in bringing about the restoration of the ten tribes. Hence their restoration is plainly future and hence we cannot, with any degree of consistency, apply the predictions which foretel it to the return of a few individuals from Babylon with Judah. Of the Jews, who were carried away captive to Babylon, only a very small part, according to Houbigant not more than a hundredth part, returned to their own country, Those, who were left behind, will doubtless, at the time of the second advent, be brought back along with their brethren of the ten tribes; just as those individuals of the ten tribes, who returned with Judah from Babylon, and (adhering to him notwithstanding the Samaritan schism) were afterwards scattered with him by the Romans, will be brought back with their brethren the Jews. So far, but no further, the otherwise distinct restorations of Judah and Joseph will in some measure be mingled together. This circumstance is

very accurately noted by Ezekiel, even when predicting the twofold restoration of Judah and Joseph, and their subsequent union under one king. He speaks neither of Judah nor Joseph simply; but styles the one division Judah and the children of Israel his companions, and the other division Joseph and all the house of Israel his companions: thus plainly intimating, that some of the children of Israel shall return with Judah; but that members of all the tribes, not of the kingdom of the ten tribes only, but of all the tribes, shall return with Joseph*.

I have stated, that the restoration of Judah will commence at the close of the 1260 years, and have intimated it to be probable that it will not be completely effected till a period of 30 additional years shall likewise have expired. This conjecture is founded upon a remarkable chronological passage in the book of Daniel. The prophet teaches us, that 75 years will intervene between the expiration of the 1260 years and the commencement of the Millennium: and these 75 years he divides, without specifying any reason for such a division, into 30 years and 45 years. What particular event will happen at the era of the division, we undoubtedly cannot determine with any degree of certainty; because Daniel has left it wholly undetermined: but we must conclude, that the point of the division will be marked by some signal

*See Bp. Horsley's Hosea, p. 59, 60.

event; otherwise how can we rationally account for its having been made? Now, when we find by comparing prophecy with prophecy, that the restoration of Judah will precede the restoration of Israel, and that the restoration of Israel will not even so much as commence till, the restoration of at least the main body of Judah is completed, and till the power of Antichrist is broken: it is at least highly probable, that the 30 years will be occupied in the conversion and restoration of Judah, in the great earthquake or political convulsion that divides the Latin empire into three parts, in the northern hailstorm, in the wars of Antichrist with the kings of the South and the North, in his grand expedition against Palestine and Egypt, and in the contemporary naval expedition of the maritime power undertaken for the purpose of bringing back the converted Jews; that the za years will close with the complete overthrow of Antichrist in the valley of Megiddo, an event than which one cannot conceive one better calculated to mark a signal chronological epoch; and that the 45 years will be employed in the wanderings of those who escaped from the rout of the Antichristian army and who will carry every where the tidings of God's supernatural inte ference, and in the subsequent conversion and restoration of the whole house of Israel. I wish this to be understood only as a conjecture; for it would be folly to speak positively before the event.

When