mous Christian author says*, "A time then must come, which shall be the reign of the Meffiah and the Jews, in which this nation shall be exalted, as has been promised above all the nations, and shall reign by its Saints, its Prophets, and Apostles. For otherwise, I am bold to say, That all the prophecies made to this people were delusive, and were only given them for a snaret."

But this scheme of the second coming of Jesus, which is founded on that of the Millennium, is, as I have already shewn‡, a mere chimera, an ignus fatuus; and for which, there is not the least authority in the prophecies of the Old Testament.

The seventh prophecy commences chapter xxxviii. ver. Ist. and is continued to the end of the last verse of chapter xxxix.

The purport of this prophecy, (according to the arrangement above mentioned) is the vengeance which God will take in the latter days of the enemies of the Jews, for the

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cruelties exercised against them, from the firft deftruction of their country, and their being carried into captivity, to the very time, that he shall inflict this punishment on them.

Before we proceed it must be observed that, the generality of commentators are of opinion, that the nations here mentioned, will come to invade the Jews after their restoration, and reestablishment in their own land; and this will be, in order to refine and purify them, when the wicked are to be cut off, and the true believers will be preserved. But to this, the learned Abarbanal objects; as the nation will already have been refined, before they shall be restored to their own land: as God will judge them in the wilderness of the people, in their journey thither; as already shewn: (p. 239. &c.) he therefore is of opinion, that they will not come to attack the Jews, but to dispossess the Christians of the holy land; which they, (stirred up by God, as we find that Gog will also) shall have by fome means gotten poffeffion of. And, as that was the spot where they first began to afflict the nation, they therefore will all meet there with their due reward; Christians, Mahometans hometans, and Pagans, will all fight against each other: and thus will the vengeance of God be accomplished upon them. Now, although there is a difference of opinion concerning the motive that will induce Gog and the nations that shall come with him to this war; yet, all agree, that this is certainly to take place in the latter days: when the na tions will be punished for what they have done to the Jews, for so many hundred years; as mentioned in the different prophecies delivered by the Prophets.

We now proceed to the explanation of the prophecy.-ver. 1-3. "The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying: Son of man, fet thy face against Gog (of) the land of Magog, prince of Rhos Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus faith the LORD God: Behold, I (am) against thee, O Gog, prince of Rhos Methech and Tubal." Magog we know was the second son of Japhet; and (as Mr. Mede expresses it) by the consent of all men, placed north of Tubal, and esteemed the father of the Scythians, that dwelt on the east and north east of the Euxine fea. Michaelis com

VOL. II.

pares

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pares the word Gog with Kak or Chak, the general name of the kings among the ancient Turks, Moguls, Tartars, Cataians, and Chinese: Spic. Geogr. p. 34. and thinks that Magog denotes those vast tracts of country to the north of India and China, which the Greeks called Scythia, and we Tartary. The Turks are generally allowed to be of Scythian origin. And Pliny says (L. v. ch. xxiii.) that the city in Syria called Hierapolis, was by the Syrians called Magog; which name it is supposed to have derived from the Scythians, when they made an excursion into Syria, and took this city. On the like account it is that the city of Bethshean in the territories of the tribe of Manasseh on this side Jordan, being seized on by the Scythians, when they enlarged their conquests in Syria, and which was kept by them as long as they continued in Afia, was afterwards called Scythopolis. As to ראש, I must observe that it is not an appellative, as in the common tranflation of the Bible; but is a proper name; and denotes the people called Rhoffi. For as Bochart observes from the Nubian Geogarpher, that the river in Armenia, called by the Greeks Araxes, is by the Arabi

ans

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ans called Rofh. This also, (according to Dr. Wells*,) makes it probable that the Moscovites, or Muscovites in Europe, were a colony originally of Meshech, or Mosoch, called by the Greeks, Moschi, not only on account of the likeness of names, but also of the respective situations of the Afiatick and European Mofchi one to the other. And therefore, he farther observes, that "the Mofchi + and Rossi being thus neighbours in Afia, their colonies kept together in Europe; those of the Mofchi seating themselves in the province of Muscovy, properly so called, that is, the parts about the city of Moscow : those of the Roffi seating themselves in the parts adjoining on the south. For the learned Bochart has observed from Tzetzes, that the people called Tauri, and from whom the Taurica Cherfonesus took its name, were in the days of Tzetzes better known by the name of Ros, than of Tauri. Upon the whole therefore it may very probably be believed, that the Muscovites and Russians in Europe were colonies of Meshech, or elfe of Meshech