millennium; it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from the isles of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth? In the expression, the isles of the sea, Europe, says Vitringa, is undoubtedly included.

After alleging so many passages, all of which prove that the restoration of the Jews will be accomplished, and several of which serve to evince, that that event will take place about the time, when the new symbolic heavens and symbolic earth are to commence; I shall perhaps be thought to have unnecessarily directed the attention of the reader to the following citation from Dr. Whitby. It is not, however, long, and, of itself, seems capable of conveying conviction to the mind.

St. John speaks of a new heaven and a new earth, that he saw, saying, the former heaven and earth were passed away, Rev. xxi. 1: and introduceth our Lord, saying, Behold, I make all things new, v. 5. And the prophet Isaiah introduceth God, thus speaking at the conversion of the Jews, Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. Is. lxv. 17. And again,-in the very words of the author of the Revelations, Behold, I make all things new, ch. xliii. 18, 19. Seeing then these new heavens and new earth must be contemporary with the conversion of the Jews, sure they must be before the conflagration of the world, i. e. before the Jewish nation be consumed to ashes; and therefore can

52 XI. 9, 11, 13. In the versions of bp. Lowth and Mr. Dodson it is from the four extremities of the earth.

53 In his Thoughts on the Grand Apostacy (p. 190), Mr. Taylor (the author of Ben Mordecai's Apology) has not omitted to warn the reader, that this passage relates not to the dissolution of the natural, but merely of the political world.'

only be a new heaven and new earth, in that moral sense in which Maimonides explains the phrase34.'

In the scriptures of the Old Testament, agreeably to what might be expected, the prophecies relative to the future state of the Jews are principally to be found. That there is a plain prediction of the great founder of our religion upon this subject has, however, been seen. To this a prophetic declaration of St. Paul may with propriety be added. In the beginning of the XIth chapter of his epistle to the Romans, he asks, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid, says the apostle, God hath not cast away his people? And again in verses 25, and 26, I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery,—that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved. That the descendants of Abraham, much as they have been distinguished by obstinate incredulity, shall hereafter acknowlege the evidences, and enjoy the advantages, of Christianity, is, indeed, the great truth, which is to be deduced from the whole tenor of the chapters.

54 On the Millennium, c. II. sect. 3. The expression of the prophet, Maimonides admonishes the reader, is symbolically to be understood.

6

55 Dr. Whitby, in his elaborate, and, I may add, in his convincing, Appendix to the xith chapter of the Romans, says, to strengthen the argument which I have offered from it, for the conversion of the Jewish nation to the Christian faith; let it be noted, that this hath been the constant doctrine of the church of Christ, owned by the Greek and Latin Fathers, and by ALL commentators I have met with on this place. Among the Greek Fathers by St. Chrysostom,' Theodoret, Gennadius, Photius, Theophylact, and Origen. All the Latin Fathers, who have left us any commentaries, or notes on this epistle, are plainly of the same mind, as you may see by consulting Hilary the Deacon, Primasius, Sedulius, and Haymo, upon the 25th verse of this chapter.' That the exiled wanderers of Judea shall hereafter embrace the Christian faith, was also the opinion of Jerom and Justin Martyr, of Cyril and Augustin, as their writings attest.

That the Jewish nation shall hereafter be converted to Christianity is observed, in their respective commentaries on the xith. ch. of the Epistle to the Romans by Poole and Mr. Samuel Clark, by John Locke and Mr. Taylor of Norwich, by Doctors Guyse, Doddridge, and Wells, by Bre. nius, Slichtingius, and Crellius, by Pareus, Beza, Marlorat, and Erasmus.

It is observable, says Dr. Hartley, that the promises of restoration relate to the ten tribes, as well as the two of Judah and Benjamins. That the Jews, both of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and the other ten, shall hereafter be restored to their own land, is,' says Mr. Hallett, foretold by ALL the ancient prophets. The twelve tribes of Israel continued one people till the reign of Rehoboam, son of Solomon; when the ten tribes revolted from him. These ten tribes were called, the kingdom of Israel; the other two were called, the kingdom of Judah. About 250 years after the division, the kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians, and the people carried away captive, 2 Kings, xvii. 5, 6, &c. These have never yet returned to Judea.

'The difficulty of finding out the habitations of the ten tribes hath', says bp. Newton, induced some to maintain, that they returned into their own country with the other two tribes after the Babylonish captivity. The decree, indeed, of Cyrus extended to all the people of God (Ezra I. 3.), and that of Artaxerxes to all the people of Israel (vii. 13.): and no doubt many of the Israelites took advantage of these decrees, and returned with Zerubbabel and Ezra to their own cities: but still the main body of the ten tribes remained behind. Ezra, who should best know, saith, that there rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin (1. 5.) and he called the Samaritans the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin (iv. 1.): these two tribes were the principals, the others were only as accessaries. And, if they did not return at this time, they cannot be supposed to have returned in a body at any time after this: for we read of no such adventure in history, we know neither the time nor the occasion of their return, nor who were their generals or leaders in this expedition. Josephus, who saw his country for several years in as flour

And that this is the import of St. Paul's words is incidentally observed by Vitringa (in Jesai. tom. II. p. 795).

56 On Man, vol. II. p. 373.

57 Notes on Several Texts of Scripture and Discourses, by Joseph Hallett, Jun. vol. III. p. 409.

ishing a condition as at any time since the captivity, affirms, that Ezra sent a copy of the decree to Artaxerxes to all of the same nation throughout Media, where the ten tribes lived in captivity, and many of them came with their effects to Babylon, desiring to return to Jerusalem: but the main body of the Israelites abode in that region: and therefore it hath happened, saith he", that there are two tribes in Asia and Europe, living in subjection to the Romans, but the ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates to this time"." And it is observed by Prideaux, that, during all the time of the second temple, and for a great many ages after, the number of the Jews in Chaldea, Assyria, and Persia, grew to be so very great, that they were all along thought to exceed the number of the Jews of Palestine, even in those times when that country was best inhabited by them."

With respect to the ten tribes, the following questions, which bp. Newton has stated, are, as he observes, doubtless embarrassing. Where have they subsisted all this while? And where is their situation, or what is their condition at present? It may, however, be observed, that the Jews, who still subsist under great circumstances of depression in Persia, are the descendants of the ten tribes2; and some passages from a recent work of Oriental literature may deserve to be transcribed, as they seem to afford some hope, that a ray of light may be unexpectedly thrown over a subject, which has hitherto been dark and unusually clouded by difficulties.

After an account of the Afghans, inserted in the Asiatic Researches, the parent of that work, Sir William Jones, who unites in his own person two very rare characters, that of an accomplished Oriental linguist and a meritorious British inhabitant of Hindostan, adds, This account of

58 Antiq. lib. II. cap. 5. sect. 2. p. 482. edit. Hudson.

59 Vol. I. p. 209.

60 Connection of the Hist. of the Old and New Test. fol. 7th ed. vol. I. p. 108.

61 Vol. I. p. 207.

62 See Basnage's Hist. of the Jews, b. VI. ch. 2, 4.

the Afghans may lead to a very interesting discovery. We learn from Esdras, that the ten tribes, after a wandering journey, came to a country called Arsareth, where we may suppose they settled. Now the Afghans ARE SAID BY THE BEST PERSIAN HISTORIANS TO BE DESCENDED FROM THE JEWS; they have traditions among themselves of such a descent; and it is even asserted, that their families are distinguished by the names of Jewish tribes, although since their conversion to the Islam, they studiously conceal their origin. The Pushto language, of which I have seen a dictionary, have a manifest resemblance to the Chaldaic; and a considerable district under their dominion is called Hazareh, or Hazaret, which might easily have been changed into the word used by Esdras. I strongly recommend an inquiry into the literature and history of the Afghans4.

The title given to the piece, to which Sir William Jones's observations are annexed, is on the Descent of the Afghans from the fews. It is translated from the Persian by Mr. Vansittart; and the Persian work is itself an abridginent of a more early performance, written in the Pushto or Afghan language, and entitled, the Secrets of the Afghans. It is from this Persian abridgment that the following statements are taken. The Afghans, according to their own traditions, are the posterity of Melic Talut' (king Saul), and Afghan, who had a military command under Solomon, was the grandson of Talut. Then follows an account of

63 B. II. ch. xiii. 41-50. Visionary and wild as many parts of the Second Book of Esdras certainly are, it nevertheless ascertains the antiquity of this tradition. It is, declares Bengelius, a matter admitted by the learned, that this book was written in the beginning of the second century (Intr. to the Apoc. &c. p. 285); and Basnage, speaking of the author of it, says (Hist of the Jews, b. VI. c. 2, 4), we must place him at the end of the first, or beginning of the second, century.'

64 See the Asiatic Researches, 4to. vol. II; or a smaller work, published by Nicol, entitled Dissertations and Miscellaneous Pieces, relating to the Hist. and Antiq. the Arts, Sciences, and Liter. of Asia by Sir W. Jones, &c. 8vo. vol. II. p. 128.