shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle." Zech. 14: 3. And God will rain down fire and brimstone from heaven, as it is written, “And I will plead against him with pestilence, and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire and brimstone." Ezek. 38: 22. And there shall the impious Armillus perish, with his whole army, and all the impious who destroyed the house of our God and carried us away from our own land. In that very hour will Israel take vengeance on them; for it is said, "And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble." Obadiah, 18. p. 79–81.

Ninth sign. Michael shall blow a great blast, by which the sepulchres of the dead at Jerusalem shall be opened, and the blessed God will restore them to life. Messiah Ben David also, and Elijah the prophet with him, will raise from the dead Messiah Ben Joseph, who was preserved under the gates of Jerusalem. Then they shall send Messiah Ben David to gather together the remainder of the Jews dispersed in all countries; and forthwith all the kings of the Gentiles throughout the world will take the Israelites upon their shoulders and bring them to God. p. 138.

Tenth sign. When Michael shall have sounded again, the loudest blast, God will bring forth all the tribes from the rivers Gosan, Lachlach and Chabor, and from the cities of the Medes, an innumerable multitude, and they shall come with the children of Moses. "The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a flame burneth." Joel, 2:3. And at that time, when the tribes shall go forth, the glorious clouds of the divine majesty shall surround them: the blessed God himself will go be fore their face, as it is said, The breaker is come up

before them." Mica, 2: 13. He will open to them the fountains of the tree of life, and he will drink of them in the way, as it is said, "I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." Isa. 41: 18. It is also written: "They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them." Isa. 49 10. God will make us worthy to see the deliverance in a short time; he will make us worthy to see the house of his choice, the temple. He will fulfill in us what is written: "Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling-places: and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the order thereof." Jerem. 30: 18. And he will accomplish in us all his consolations and assurances promised by his prophets; "And at that time will I bring you, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth." Zeph. 3:20. p. 142, 143.

§ 8. On the other hand also, there are ten kinds of consolations and assurances in which God causes Israel to trust: and as the root of those consolations, which are as branches proceeding from it, the first is the coming of the Redeemer ; for it is said, "Behold, thy King cometh unto thee." Zech. 9:9. The second-the gathering together of the captives; for it is said, "Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame." Jerem. 31:18. What is meant by the "lame and the blind?" This teaches us, that every one of the just will return in the same state in which he departed out of this life. He who was blind, will return to life blind; he who was lame, will return to life lame and so they will be raised with all their blemishes in order that every one shall be able to recognize his companion, that no one may say they are other persons: but

afterwards God will cure them, according to that passage: "Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing." Isa. 35:6. The third-the resurrection of the dead, as it is written: And many of them that slept in the dust of the earth shall awake." Dan. 12: 2. The fourth-the building of the temple, according to the vision of Ezekiel in his prophecy. The fifth-the reign of Israel from sea to sea, over the whole earth, as it is said: "For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish." Isa. 9:12. And the whole earth shall return to the judgment of God, and to his law, according to the prophecy : "Then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord." Zeph. 3:9. The sixth-that God will destroy all his enemies, and take vengeance upon them, as it is said: “And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom." Ezek. 25: 14. The seventh-that God will take away from Israel all disease, and every plague, according to the prophecy: "And the inhabitants shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be delivered from iniquity." Isa. 23:24. The eighth-that God will prolong the days of the Israelites like those of a tree, according to the prophecy: "As the days of a tree shall be the days of my people." Isa. 45: 22. It is also written "For the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner, being an hundred years old, shall be accursed." Isa. 65: 20. It is also written, "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces." Isa. 25: 8. The ninth-that God will manifest himself to Israel face to face; for it is said: "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." Isa. 40: 5. He will also make all Israelites prophets, as it is said: "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy." Joel, 2:28. The tenth-God will take away from Israel the evil

principle and all evil language, as it is said: "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh." Ezek. 11: 19. The wars of the Messiah are ended. "Harden" not "our hearts from thy fear." Isa. 63: 17, p. 158, 160.

§ 9. Pardon me, my dear Benjamin, for having detained you so long. I will now close this introduction with a very brief statement of the sentiments of Joseph Crool, one of our nation, and Hebrew teacher at Cambridge University, in England: "By sin," says he, "man has become a fallen creature, and will continue so for six thousand years, according to the days of the creation of the world, but no longer; at the end, or near to it, the Messiah shall come, and there will be a new world. The old world shall be restored to its former glory, a new heaven and a new earth will appear, the former shall pass away, mankind will recover the primitive glory, and will be above angels; Satan and his band will be destroyed. The seventh day of the creation was the Sabbath, and that day only received a blessing, and was set apart for ever to be observed as a holy day; which was a type of the great Sabbath, i. e. the world of the Messiah, which also will be called the blessed world. Restor. Israel, p. 11.

"God created the world," says he, “in six days, to teach us that each day is to represent a thousand years, i. e. that this world shall exist for the space of six thousand years; the seventh day, which is called the Sabbath, represented, that after six thousand years, there should be a sabbatical time for one thousand years. This present year, 1812, we count 5571, and here we find there are yet 137 years to the time of his coming: but we know that this time will be shortened; and, according to the opinion of one great and learned Rabbi, there are only 29 years more to the time of his coming; and when we shall begin to count 5600, all

things in this world will be settled." Again he says, “By this calculation we may learn that the jubilee of the restoration of Israel has begun already, these twenty years back, a. e. just when the Revolution began in France; at that very time the seventy jubilees were at an end. There are yet thirty-six years to the end of the jubilee of Israel, and before the end of these thirty-six years, Israel will be restored, and the Messiah will take possession of his empire." The Lord will hasten it in his time.

Amen.

Farewell.

Letter III

THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.

My Dear Benjamin,

From the statement in the preceding letters, which comprises the sentiments of many writers, both Jewish and Christian, on the subject of the second advent of Christ, or the millennium, it appears that a certain chain of events is to take place; and although the things which relate to the circumstances, the time when, and the means and instruments by which the predicted events are to be brought about, cannot be known with certainty, yet when we shall see the accomplishment of the first, we may confidently look for the appearance of the next event. For more than thirty years, my dear Benjamin, I have studied this subject as much as my other avocations would permit, and from what I have been able to gather, both from the Holy Bible, from the writings of man, and from the dispensations of God's 12*