trouble such as never was since there was a nation, we may reasonably suppose that great numbers of them will perish. Accordingly we find, that their return from the countries of their dispersion is expressly compared by Ezekiel to their ancient exodus from Egypt. As God pleaded with their fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt; so will he likewise plead with them, causing them to pass under the rod, and purging out from among them the rebels. It is probable indeed, that only a small part of the first generation of those that are restored will quietly sit down under their own vines and under their own fig-trees. One whole generation of the Israelites, that were brought out of Egypt, perished in the course of forty years in the wilderness and there is reason to think, that the conversion and restoration of Judah, and the expedition and destruction of Antichrist, will occupy a period of not less than 30 years. The swift messengers of the great maritime power will begin the work of converting the Jews, that is to say such Jews as are scattered through the countries subject to their influence. Antichrist meanwhile will collect the unconverted Jews from those parts of the isles, or the regions of Europe,* which are under his immediate control, for the purpose of bringing them back in an unbelieving state to their own country: but whether he, or whether the maritime power, will absolutely begin the work of restoring the ancient people of God, cannot, I think, be certainly gathered from Scripture. His plan will be a plan of pure

By the isles of the Gentiles the Jews understood all those countries which they could not reach from Palestine except by sea. Hence the name was given to Europe, in contradistinction to Asia, which to them was strictly continental. See Mede's Works, Book I. Disc. 49. p. 272.

That the maritime power, mystically termed by Isaiah the ships of Tarshish, will be the first, or (as the original expression is rendered by the Lxx and in the Latin translation of the Arabic version) among the first, to attempt the conversion of the Jews; and that they will afterwards bring back to Palestine such as shall be converted by their instrumentality, seems to be revealed with sufficient plainness: but it is no where, I believe, positively declared, that they shall begin the work of restoring the Jews. Since part of them are to be brought back by Antichrist in an unconverted state, and part by the maritime power in a converted state, it certainly is possible that Antichrist may begin to restore the one division previous to the restoration or even the conversion of the other division. Most probably however the two events will be nearly, if not altogether, contemporary. The prophecy, contained in Isaiah Ix. 8, 9, relates solely to the restoration of the converted Jews, because they are declared to be brought unto the name of the Lord and we are taught, that some power, mystically termed the ship: of Tarshish, shall be among the first to undertake this great enterprize.

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Machiavelian policy: and, considering the frailty of human nature, it is much to be feared that the plan of the maritime power, strenuously as that power will exert itself in converting no less than in collecting the Jews, will be somewhat alloyed by worldly motives, and will not be adopted simply from a desire to promote the glory of God. Most probably politics will have taken such a turn at that eventful period, as to make it seem to be the interest of both those great powers to attempt the restoration of the Jews. Thus doubly brought back by two mighty contending nations, and thus plunged into the midst of perils and of war during the space of 30 years (for so long a time will, I think, intervene between the first effusion of the seventh vial at the close of the 1260 years when they begin to be restored, and the destruction of Antichrist at Megiddo), the Jews must inevitably suffer many calamities; and we are taught accordingly by Ezekiel, that such will assuredly be the case.

When the army of Antichrist is miraculously overthrown, the Lord, who forgetteth not mercy even in the midst of judgment, will not make an entire end; but will spare some of the least guilty 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 unful filled 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 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 various prophecies, which speak of the restoration of the ten tribes, certainly cannot relate to the restoration of those detached individuals out of them, 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

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

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 foretell 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 two-fold 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

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

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 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 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 30 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 interference, 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 the 45 years shall have expired, when the whole family of Jacob shall have been converted and restored, and when the stick of Judah shall have united itself forever with the stick of Joseph; then will commence the season of millennian blessedness. We have reason to suppose, that the ancient people of God, now converted to the faith of Christ, will be greatly instrumental in spreading the glad tidings of the Gospel among the heathen nations, already prepared to receive it by so many supernatural interpositions of Providence, and by beholding with their own eyes the glory of the Lord permanently