providence, I now venture, but with the greatest diffidence and deepest humility, to submit to you my feeble thoughts on this profound subject; not for the purpose of entering into a controversy with any one who may differ, but merely for your consideration, to adopt or reject them as you may think them most agreeable to the revealed will of God.

§ 1. The events to follow each other are probably these: 1. The way will be prepared for the return of our people to their own land.

2. They will return as a nation in an unconverted state. 3. They will rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, and reestablish Judaism for a season.

4. A considerable number of our brethren will be converted, but not return with our nation.

5. These will afterwards be carried in vessels of bulrushes to our people, and be the means of leading them to declare themselves an independent nation.

6. This will cause Jerusalem to be besieged by the eastein and the western antichrist.

7. Jesus Christ shall then appear personally and visibly. 8. The effect of this appearance will be two-fold; the destruction of the enemy, or the battle of Armageddon, on the one hand, and the conversion of our nation on the other.

9. The ten tribes will then return and be re-united with Judah.

10. The first resurrection will take place.

11. Satan will be bound for a thousand years.

12. During this period Christ will reign personally upon the earth, and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall fill the whole earth.

These twelve events will probably happen within the space of 75 years, the portion of time between the 1260 and the 1335 years mentioned by Daniel, and about the middle of the 75 years the eighth event may be expected.

13. After this, Satan shall be let loose, make war with the saints, and be cast into the lake of fire.

14. Then comes the general judgment.

You see, my dear Benjamin, what a large field for discussion these different topics present to our view. It would by far exceed my limits to consider each and all of them in the preceding order.

I will therefore select two or three of the principal points, and include some of the rest, and will first call your attention to the,

§ 2. Restoration of our people, i. e. both Judah and his companions, and Ephraim and his companions.

An opponent to the literal restoration of the Jews says, "It is possible, we say, that the Jews may be restored to their own land, with very mistaken expectations, retaining still their carnal prejudices, rejecting the Son of David, who is come, and vainly looking for another; and that they may afterwards, by a fresh pentecostal effusion, be cured of their fatal blindness, and become obedient to the faith. The question is, what are the scriptural grounds for such an expectation?" Eclectic Review for 1829. (Third series, No. 3.;

Well, my dear Benjamin, "to the law and the prophets," and after I shall have established, from the Scriptures and other arguments, the literal restoration of our people to their own land in an unconverted state, and their conversion at the personal appearance of Christ, &c. &c. I will endeavor to answer the principal objections that have been brought against the proposed scheme. But there are two methods which have been alternately employed to evade the force of the arguments in the passages I shall quote, which evasions. I shall endeavor to notice as I go along. These methods are, either that the prophecy has been already fulfilled, or that it is to be understood in an allegorical sense, and to be applied either to the spiritual conversion of the Jews, or to the conversion of Gentiles, the spiritual Israel.

§ 3. A judicious writer in the Jewish Expositor says, They have generally applied the prophecies relating to the

restoration of the Jews, and the ten tribes, and the consequent happy state of that nation, and also of the whole Christian world, which is to happen in the latter times, (and which is frequently styled in Scripture, the reign or kingdom of Christ,) to the Church of Christ, as it has hitherto subsisted in the world; applying the terms Israel, the seed of Abraham, the city of Jerusalem, in an allegorical sense to the Christians, or the Christian church in general, whenever they meet with them with a promise of great happiness annexed; whereas the great happiness, which is the principal subject of all the Old Testament prophets, appears to me to be no way applicable to any state of Christianity that has ever yet existed, but to relate to the conversion and restoration of the literal Israel, the Jews, and the ten tribes, in the latter times, and to that reign of Christ when the Church shall be triumphant."

Another writer observes, "The Gentile takes up his station on Gerizim, and engrossing all its blessings, consigns its original occupants to the possession of the curse of Ebal. The Gentile, enjoying the figure, overlooks a literal fulfillment to the Jews. Canaan is transferred to his own bosom, or placed in heaven above, any where but in the land of Canaan." Christian Spectator, 1826, p. 514.

Another says, "We would ask our spiritualizing interpreters what they would have to offer with respect to this prophecy?" (alluding to Ezek. 36: 1–5, 8, 12.) “Without doubt, spiritualizing will boldly affirm that the prediction which Ezekiel addresses to the mountains of Israel, contains nothing about their return to their own land, as the papists maintain that after the consecration of the wafer, nothing of real substance remains, but it is really and substantially transubstantiated into the body of Christ, although they cannot deny that the outward appearance continues to be that of a wafer. So these persons, taking a bold flight in allegory, will tell us that the mountains, hills, rivers, valleys,

desolate wastes, and cities of Israel in the prophecy, are to be understood of the Christian church among the Gentiles; and that the return of the children of Israel to those places only means their conversion to Christ." Ibi

§ 4. I will now proceed to show from the Scriptures, that the Jews, as a nation, will return again to the literal Canaan before their conversion. There is scarcely any thing more frequently foretold than this glorious event. To quote all the passages relating to it would be an endless task, I shall therefore select but a few as a specimen. We will begin with Moses. "And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it and I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you; and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her Sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they despised my judgments, and their soul abhorred my statutes." Lev. 26: 32, 33, 42-45. In the preceding verses God threatens judgments to overtake our nation for their sins and disobedience to his law; and then promises that he will not utterly destroy them, but remember his covenant made with our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which covenant reads thus: "And the Lord said unto Abraham, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever." Gen. 13: 14, 15.

§ 5. The learned Dr. Mede, in his answer to Dr. Swift's fourth letter, gives the following explanation of this

text, which deserves particular notice: "I doubt not," says he, but you have felt some scruple (as well as others) at our Savior's demonstration of the resurrection in the Gospel. Matt. 22; Mark, 13. God said to Moses in the bush,

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I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Ergo, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must one day rise again from the dead. How does this conclusion follow? Do not the spirits of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob yet live? God should then be the God of the living, though their bodies should never rise again. Therefore some Socinians argue from this place, that the spirits of the just lie in the sleep of death until the resurrection. Or, might not the Sadducees have replied, the meaning to be of what God had been, not of what he should be, viz. That he was that God who had once chosen their fathers, and had made a covenant with them; I am the Lord that brought Abraham out of Chaldea, who appeared to Isaac and Jacob whilst they lived,' &c. But how would this then make for the resurrection? Surely it doth. He that could not err said it. Let us see therefore how it may.

"I say, therefore, the words must be understood with a supply of that they have reference to, which is the covenant which the Lord made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in respect whereof he calls himself their God. This covenant was to give unto them and to their seed the land wherein they were strangers; (mark it) not their seed, or offspring only, but to themselves.

"To Abraham, Gen. 13: 15, and 17: 8. To Isaac, Gen. 26: 3. To Jacob, Gen. 35: 12. To all three, Exod. 6 : 4, 8. Deut. 1: 8. 11: 21, and 30: 20. If God then make good to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, this his covenant, whereby he undertook to be their God; then they must needs one day live again to inherit the promised land, which hitherto they have not done. For the God that has