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OF THE

Future Restauration

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OF THE

JEWS.

N the NINTH Chapter of our Treatise De Statu
Mortuorum, &c. under the Article of the

MILLENIUM, we have faid little or nothing concerning the State of the Jews in the future Kingdom of the Meffiah, that so the Thread of that Discourse might not be interrupted. But this Matter is of too great Moment to be paffed by untouched, or treated ot in a cursory Manner. Many are of Opinion, that the Wife of the Lamb (Ifa. iv. 5.) which in the Revelation of St. John, made her self ready for the Marriage before the End of the World, with a folemn Pomp, denotes the People of the Jews. For when the great Woore of Babylon was judged, (Rev. xix. 1. &c. Dan. vii. Ir, 13, 14.) condemned, and burned, there were many Voices heard in Heaven and on Earth, finging Hallelujah to God: The Voices of four and twenty Elders, four Beasts, and all the Servants of God, both small and great. There were Voices like the Noise of many Waters, and like mighty Thunderings (v. 7, 8.) saying Hallelujah; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. And then it follows: Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him; for the Marriage

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of the Lamb is come, and his Wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine Linen, clean and white; for the fine Linen is the Righteousness of the Saints. Then the Angel Said to me, write (v. 9.) blessed are they who are called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. And he said unto me, these are the true Sayings of God. True altho' wonderful, and to be committed to writing that Posterity may be certified of the Reality of them.

In this Marriage of the Lamb there is pointed out fome future notable Change or Restauration of Things. And fince the fame Bride of the Lamb is afterwards called the Holy City, the great, the new Ferusalem, descending out of Heaven from God, (xxi. 2, 9, 10.) the Kingdom of the Meffiah seems to be aimed at in this Description, under the Name of a City, and the new and holy Jerufalem, namely that same Kingdom which the most High will give to the Meffiah in his own Time, and to his holy People, or the Jews, as Daniel says. (c. vii. 27.) There is a remarkable Passage also to this Purpose in St. Luke's Gofpel, (6. i. 3.) and many other Places of Scripture, which we shall infert in the Progrefs of this Work, in their proper Order. For I am not defirous that the Reader should form a Judgment from what has been thus briefly hinted, as to what particular Parts the Jews are to bear in this Marriage of the Lamb, or that Kingdom of the Meffiah. This Argument must take a much larger Compass, and must be drawn from the very Originals of that Nation. Moreover it seems proper when we are entering on a Discourse about the future Condition of the Jews, to begin from Abraham their Father, and the everlasting Promises made to him and his Seed. When Abraham by the Command of God having left his Country, and came into the Land of Canaan, the Lord appeared to him and faid, (Gen. xii. 7) Unto thy Seed will I give this Land: and Abraham builded there an Altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him. And when he returned from Egypt (having been compelled to go thither by reason of the Famine) God renewed his Promise, and said unto him, after he had looked round about, (c. xiii. 15.) All the Land which thou feest, to thee will I give it, and to thy Seed for ever. Afterwards, when Abraham defired a Sign for the Confirmation of his Faith, God gave him an extraordinary one; and then immediately by way of Covenant, repeated the Promise, saying, (c. xiv. 8, 18.) Unto thy Seed have I given this Land, from the River of Egypt unto the great River, the River Enphrates.

Farther, when he changed his Name from Abram to Abraham, (c. xvii. 5.) God made a perpetual Covenant with Abraham, concerning the Things promised, saying, (v. 7, 8.) I will establish my Covenant between me and thee, and thy Seed after thee in their Generations, for an everlasting Covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy Seed after thee: And I will give unto thee and to thy Seed after thee, the Land wherein thou art a Stranger, all the Land of Canaan for an everlasting Poffeffion; and I will be their God.

Moreover Circumcifion was instituted as a Token of the Covenant, to be observed on the Part of Abraham and his Seed; (Gen. xvii. 10.) and God on his Part promised Abraham (when he was then an old Man, and his Wife well ftricken in Age) a Son Ifaac, whom he joyfully received at the appointed time. Thus we have taken a brief Survey of the Promise which was made to Abraham and his Seed, concerning their perpetual Inheriting of the Land of Canaan.

The same Promise was renewed to Ifaac, which God had before made to his Father. For when Ifaac was preparing to go into Egypt to avoid the Famine, God appeared to him, and forbidding him to take that Journey, commanded him to abide in the Land of Canaan: And lest Ifaac, who was then fearful and destitute of Provision, should make any Hefitation in this Matter, God repeated that Promise which he had already made to Abraham, and diftinguished it with the Solemnity of an Oath (c. xvi. 3.) Sojourn in this Land and I will be with thee, and will bless thee, for unto thee, and unto thy Seed, I will give all these Countries, and I will perform the Oath which I fware unto Abraham thy Father.

Ifaac tranfmitted this Promise to Jacob and his Seed, (c. xxxv. 11, 12.) and God himself confirmed the fame to Jacob, when having changed his Name into Ifrael, he said unto him, I am God Almighty, (c. xlviii. 3, 4.) the Land which I gave Abrabam, and Ifaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy Seed after thee will I give the Land. This promised Inheritance was afterwards transferred with the fame Right and Title, in the Name of the omnipotent God, to Jofeph and his Seed for a perpetual Poffefsion. And lastly Joseph when he was dying delivered and handed down this Gift of God to his Children and Brethren, the Heads of the Tribes of Ifrael. (Gen. i. 24.)

Thus this Promise was gradually confirmed at divers Times, and by various Repetitions. God obliged himself to perform these things by the Force of a Promise, Covenant and Oath, (Chron. xx. 7. Pf. cv. 8. cxxxii. 11, &c.) than which nothing is esteemed more facred or inviolable. A Promife is a Security for private Faith, and a Covenant for that which is public; but an Oath (Heb. vi. 13, 17.) comprehends

hends whatsoever can be imagined necessary for either, be it human or divine.

Hitherto we have discoursed about the Promises of God formerly made to the Patriarchs, (as well separately as jointly) (Exod. vi. 4, 8 Deut. i. 8.) and their Sons, of their Poffeffing the Land of Canaan. It is to be observed, that the Ifraelites afterwards pofsessed the Land, and fo far these Promises were fulfilled, but they were often driven from thence and restored again, till the last and most terrible Expulsion which they have fustained for near seventeen Ages, and which they still groan under. Now since the Land of Canaan was given to the Ifraelites for a perpetual Inheritance, this Question necessarily arifes, Whether they shall at last be restored to their ancient Country, that so the Promises of God may not be void?

Indeed the Prophets often foretold the Captivities and Restaurations of the Children of Ifrael; and the Event of Things was answerable to their Prophecies; and so the divine Promises remained unhurt and entire.

For the Nature of the Promise did not require that the Ifraelites should at all times pofssess that Land for a continual and never interrupted Series of Years, but only that they should at least, after long Captivity, return to the Heritage abovementioned. And so they should always have a just Title to that Land whosoever actually poffefsed it. I fay always and to the laft, by Virtue of the divine Donation, which can never be extinguished, With God there is no Time, no Prescription.

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God no where promised that he would never punish the Ifraelites, either at home or abroad (by Wars, Banishment and Captivity) on the contrary he threatened them with all Sorts of Punishments, as often as they should presumptuously rebel againft

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