• fandth

year, all wickednefs fhould be abo ⚫lished out of the earth, and justice should reign for a thousand years.When the Son of God fhall have deftroyed injuftice," ⚫ and fhall have restored the juft to life, he fhall be converfant among men a thousand

years, and fhall rule them with most just government. At the fame time the prince' of devils fhall be bound with chains, and fhall be in cuftody the thousand years of the heavenly kingdom, while justice shall reign in the world, left he fhould attempt any evil

against the people of God.When the 'thoufand years of the kingdom, that is, feven thousand years, fhall draw toward a ⚫ conclufion, Satan fhall be loofed again; and when the thoufand years fhall be compleated, then shall be that fecond and public re⚫ furrection of ALL, wherein the unjust shall be raised to everlasting torment.' And having enlarged upon these topics he concludes:

6

This is the doctrine of the holy Prophets which we Chriftians follow; this is our < wisdom.'

How this primitive and fcriptural doctrine came to be fo univerfally rejected in the later and more corrupt times, might be a fubject well worth our enquiry; but as this would be too long a digreffion, I fhall only obferve

here,

here, that as fuch a ftate of righteousness and purity as the millennium is described to introduce, did imply fuch a previous corrupt state of the church, as it would require a divine. interpofition to reform, it is no wonder that a church, which could fee no neceffity for any reformation at all, fhould reject it as ufelefs and unneceffary; not to mention that the circumftance of the martyrs reigning upon earth, must seem a very great degradation of these faints, to thofe who had already put them into poffeffion of fupreme felicity in heaven itself, and confidered them as mediators, and as prefiding over human affairs. But why they of the Reformation, who admit the almost universal corruption of the church for so many centuries, fhould be oppofers of this doctrine, is not fo eafily to be accounted for. For my part, I much fear that their oppofition proceeds from the fame principle with that of the church they have reformed from ; namely, that they look upon their own particular fects and opinions, as too pure and free from error, to need any farther reformation. Let me add also, that the ridiculous opinions which fome who believed this millennium, both in ancient and modern times, have fuperadded to it, without any foundation for them in fcripture, have likewife greatly tended to discredit

it. But what the true notion of it is, will beft appear from the fcripture account of it in the New Teftament, carefully compared with the Prophecies relating to it in the Old. The confideration of thefe Prophecies, with regard to this momentous point, and that of the refloration of the Jews and ten tribes, which are reprefented in fcripture as cotemporary events, is the fubject of the following sheets, in which I have collected moft of the fcriptural evidence to prove a literal restoration of the Jews; fubjoining by the way fuch obfervations, as tend either to the explanation of the texts, or to the answering fuch objections as have been, or may be raised from them.

ERRAT A.

Page 44. 1. 3. dele the-P. 49. 1. 15. dele three commas (,,,) ·P. 68. 1. 19. for I fet, read I will fet➡ P. 86. 1. 20. for Meffengers read Meffenger-P. 92. 1. 1. in the Note, for xliii. read xlviii. — P. 109. l. 15. for for read in —P. 153. 1. 9. for dedicated read Dedication.

OBSER

OBSERVATIONS

ΟΝ ΤΗ Ε

PROPHECIES

RELATING TO THE

RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.

T

HAT a great part of the Prophecies in the Old Testament have a particular relation to the Jewish nation, is generally allowed by all who have confidered them with any degree of attention. They, therefore, who are against a future return of the Jews, have endeavored to apply all the predictions relating to fuch return, to their former return from the Babylonish captivity; or else, where this could not be admitted, upon account of some circumstances in the prophecy in no respect favorable to fuch an expofition, have applied them, in an allegorical sense, to the state of the Chriftian church.

All objections that have been made to the future restoration of the Jews, have been fupported either

B

either by one or other of these methods of interpretation. It is my defign, therefore, to fhew, that neither of these ways of interpretation can be admitted in the numerous texts which I fhall here produce, in favor of fuch future and literal restoration; and confequently that fuch reftoration is the true and genuine meaning of the Prophecies produced.

The method I propofe to pursue shall be thisTo produce, in chronological order, all the most remarkable Prophecies relating to the Restoration of the Jews, and the ten Tribes; adding to each Prophecy, fuch obfervations as may ferve either to clear up the meaning of the text, or to answer fuch objections as may be made against the literal application of it to the future Reftoration of the Jewish nation.

XXXXXXXXXX

THE first Prophet who has left us any express Prophecy concerning the difperfion of the Ifraelites, and their final Restoration, is MOSES.

I.

LEVIT. XXVI. 32. And I will bring the land into defolation; and your enemies that dwell therein 33 fhall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a fword after you, and your land fhall be defolate, and your 34 cities wafte.-And yet for all that, when they be in

the land of their enemies, I will not caft them away, neither will I abhor them to deftroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am

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