the Jews to Palestine, as clouds and as doves to their windows. Chap. lxvi. 20: "And they shall bring of your brethren for an offering unto the Lord, out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel unto the house of the Lord." In Zephaniah, iii. 10, (connected with the battle of the great day, and the Millennium,) we read;" from the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants (or worshippers) shall bring my offering, even the daughter of my dispersed;" as the passage should be rendered.

event.

In Amos, ix. 14, 15, is a prediction of this "And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; and I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land, which I have given them, saith the Lord God." This restoration is surely future. For after the restoration from the Babylonish captivity, they were again expelled from their land, now for many centuries. But after the restoration here promised, God says," They shall no more be pulled up out of their land." This shows that the restoration here promised, is both future and literal. Jer. xxx. 3; "For lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people, Israel and Judah, saith the Lord; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it." In the restoration from Babylon. Israel was not returned. And the Jews possessed their land but a short time. Hence this prophecy remains

وو

to be fulfilled. Read the whole 31st chapter of Jeremiah, and you will find the restoration of the Jews, and the ten tribes, to the land of their fathers, in the last days; and their continuance in it, so long as the sun, moon, and stars endure. "If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, (i. e. of the sun, moon and stars) then the seed of Israel shall cease from being a nation before me forever.” God here promises "the city (Jerusalem) shall be built to the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever." Here God engages that as Ephraim is God's first born; so he will earnestly remember him still, and surely have mercy upon him, for his bowels are pained with his long outcast state. That he will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of Laen; and that "like as he had watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, to throw down, and to destroy and afflict; so he will watch over them to build and plant. That all this shall be, when the new covenant is made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that he made with their fathers. Thus it is an event to take place under the last, the gospel dispensation; and hence it must be now future.

The prophet Joel, when foretelling the last days, and the Millennium, notes this event; chap. iii. 1, "For behold, in those days, and at that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat." The battle of the great day of God follows; verse 9-17. Upon which follows the Millennium. In this series of events, God brings again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem."

A new preparatory

In Zech. ii. is the same. scene of judgment is predicted; verse 6, 7. The battle of the great day follows; verse 8. Then the Millennium; verse 9. To prepare the way for this, the noted restoration is promised; verse 10-18. And the scene closes thus ; verse 19, 20. "Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee; and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get me praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. At that time I will bring you again, even in the time that I gather you; for I will make you a name and a praise among all the people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord."

The prophet Hosea most decisively predicts this event. His first son must be called Jezreel ; for God would soon avenge the blood of Jezreel; "and I will cause to cease the house of Israel." This house did cease; and has been banished and lost to this day. The name of his daughter, Lo ruhamah, is explained; "Ye are not my people; and I will not be your God." Here is their long dispersion. But he immediately proceeds to predict their restoration. Chap. i. 10, 11; "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass that in the place, where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall it be said to them, Ye are the sons of the living God. Then shall the children of Israel and the children of Judah be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head; and they shall come up out of the land. (earth ;) for great shall be the day of Jezreel." Here the ten tribes were to

be dispersed, and again restored, together with the Jews; and their numbers and prosperity shall be immense. This prophet proceeds in the following chapters to predict the same event. See Hosea, 2d and 3d chapters. The account closes thus; " For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without a teraphim. Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David, their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days." Here is a description of the present dispersed state of Israel; and a prediction of their national restoration, “ in the latter days."

66

This restoration is a great event in the prophets; and we find it in the New Testament. Paul (in his epistle to the Romans, chap. xi.) notes their being again grafted into their own olive tree, ás a notable event of the last days, which shall be the riches of the gentiles ;" yea, "life from the dead" to them. See also Isaiah xlix. 18-23. One passage more I will adduce from the writings of Moses; Deut. xxx. The long and doleful dispersion of this people had been predicted in the preceding chapters. Here their final restoration follows. "And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return unto the Lord thy God; that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. And the Lord thy God will bring thee

into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it, and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers." This has never yet been fulfilled. For the Jews, returned from Babylon, were very far from being multiplied in their land above their fathers. This remains still to be accomplished.

Thus the prophetic writings do clearly decide, that both Israel and the Jews shall, in the last days, before the Millennium, be literally restored to their own land of Palestine; and be converted to the Christian faith.

4. To give a mystical import to all these prophecies, and say they will be fulfilled only in the conversion of these ancient people of God to Christianity; is to take a most unwarrantable liberty with the word of God. Some have made such pretence; but far be it from me to follow them! Why not as well apply a mystical sense to every prediction of future events? To the predictions of the battle of that great day; of the Millennium; of the resurrection of the bodies of men; of the final judgment; of the conflagration of this world; of heaven; and of hell? Why may not those as well all be fulfilled, not by a literal, but by some mystical accomplishment? Is not this to add and to diminish, with a witness? Paul says, (2 Tim. ii. 16,) “ But shun profane and vain babblings; for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their words will eat as doth a canker; of whom is Hymeneas and Philetus; who concerning the truth have erred, saying, that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some." What was the liberty taken by those arch heretics? No doubt it was this; applying to the predictions of a resurrection of the bodies of men from the

.6