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PROPHECIES -- NO. II.

The Jews will, in their unconverted state, actually and literally return to their own land before Jesus
Christ appears to destroy the Man of Sin by the glory or power of his coming. So reads the first of the
four propositions submitted in our last; to the proof of which we now advance, with this single
preliminary, that we shall, in due order, show, 1st. That the Jews will return. 2d. That they will return in
an unconverted state.

1st. The Jews will actually and literally return to their own land. To feel the full force of the many things
which we have got to say in support of this part of our proposition, the reader must indulge us with a
hearing, while we state to him, from Scripture, the dismemberment. of the Jewish nation at the
accession of Rehoboam to the throne of his father Solomon, about the year of the world 3000. On this
subject we are informed (1 Kings, xi 29.) that Jeroboam, a servant to Solomon and a man of valor,
rebelled against the King: "And it came to pass at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that
the Prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the way; and he had clad himself with a new garment: and
they two were alone in the field. And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in
twelve pieces; and he said to Jeroboam take thee ten pieces, for thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
Behold I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give thee ten tribes: but he shall
have one tribe for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen out of
all the tribes of Israel." All this came to pass in the days of Rehoboam; for Jeroboam having returned
from Egypt, whither he had been driven by Solomon, "it camc to pass when all Israel heard that
Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him King
over all Israel. There was none that followed the house of David but the tribe of Judah." 1 Kings, xii. 20.
So Jeroboam reigned at Schechem, in Mount Ephraim, over the ten tribes, and Rehoboam at Jerusalem
over Judah and Benjamin. "And there was war between Jeroboam and Rehoboam a!l the days of his
life." xv. 6.

Jeroboam, however, proved himself wholly unworthy of the rank to which the Most High exalted him;
and his reign, with all that followed, was distinguished for the most unheard-of profligacy and idolatry,
until the elevation of Hoshea, son of Elah, when God sent against the ten tribes Shalmaneser, king of
Assyria, who took their capital, Samaria, "and carried away to Assyria all Israel, and placed them in (the
towns of) Halah and Habor by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes;" from whence, as is
allowed on all hands, they never returned into their own land. But that they will yet return we shall now
show by many distinct prophecies: and first we shall begin with Hoshea, who predicted the captivity of
the ten tribes long before it occurred, as he has also foretold their restoration to the land of their
fathers in the latter days. iii. 4. "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and
without a prince;
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and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without a teraphim.
Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and shall
fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days."

Jeremiah who lived after the dispersion of the ten tribes, which were usually styled "Israel," predicts
their return thus: (ch. iii. 12.) "Go and proclaim these words towards the North, and say, Return thou
backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause my anger to fall upon you; for I am merciful, saith
the Lord, and will not keep anger for ever; only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed
against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree; and you
have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married
unto you; and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. And I will give
you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. And it shall
come to pass, when you be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they shall
say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they
remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more. At that time they shall call
Jerusalem the throne of the Lord: and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord,
to Jerusalem; neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart. In those days the
house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the
north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers." Chap. xvi. 14. "Therefore,
behold the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth that brought up the
children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out
of the land of the north, and from all lands whither he had driven them; and I will bring them again into
their land which I gave unto their fathers!" (Sec also 23d, 30th, 31st, 32d: and 33d chapters of the same
prophecies.)

The manner of their return is is made known to us by Hoshea: "Then shall the children of Judah and the
children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of
the land; for great shall be the day of. Jezreel." (See also chapters 2d, 3d, and 13th of this Prophet.) The
Lord says by Ezekiel, "Behold I, even I will both search my sheep and seek them out." ch. xxxiv. 11. (Sse
also chapters 11, 16, 20, 29, 36, and 37, where the unity of the two houses of Judah and Israel is
predicted as follows: "And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one
king shall be king to thcm all, and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into
two kingdoms any morc at all." But it may be asked, where are they to be found, for men have searched
the most remarkable portions of the earth for them in vain? Jeremiah relieves us from all difficulty here;
for although hid from human sight, they arc not beyond the reach of
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God's eye. "For," saus he, "mine eyes arc upon all their ways, they are not hid from my sight, neither is
their iniquities hid from mine eyes." Chap. xvi. verse 16. "Beho]d I will send for many fishers, saith the
Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from
every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks." From this last expression it is
possible the ten tribes are now in some of the high and yet unexplored table lands of central and
northern Asia, or they may be the American Indians; at all events, there are many portions of this globe
the geography of which is but inadequatly understood. Let Infidelity look to this, and be afraid; let
Scepticism and Atheism hide their diminished heads when the Lord does this great miracle before men.
Who but God could have kept a nation from coming to an end after such a prostration of every thing
national? But it is written by the Eternal, "Fear not, O my servant Jacob! saith the Lord; neither be
dismayed, O Israel! for, lo! I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and
Jacob shall return, and be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid." Where are the
Assyrians, the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Carthagenians, the Sidonians? They perished with the
loss of their nationality; but of the Jews it is said, and it has been verified, "Though I make a full end of
all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee." Talk not about their
long-protracted dispersion. With the Eternal one day is as a thousand, and a thousand years as one day.
For "thus saith the Lord who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and stars
for a light by night, who divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; the Lord of Hosts is his name: If
these ordinances depart from before me: saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall cease from being a
nation before me for ever. Thus saith the Lord, If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations
of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith
the Lord." ch. xxxi. 35. The Most High will yet terribly convulse the unbelieving world, and those who
presumptuously in christendom have cast off the yoke of Messiah, and have denied God; yea, and "all
the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they
trespassed against me; therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hands of their
enemies." Ezek. xxxix. 23, Many grand things shall occur when God shall have done this, as will be shown
in due time; but we must not anticipate. However, take this single bunch of grapes, O reader! as an
antepast of the feast of fat things to come -- of wines on the lees -- of wines on the lees well refined.
"Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people and the inhabitants
of many cities; and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, "Let us go speedily to pray
before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of Hosts; I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall
come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord, Thus saith the Lord

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of Hosts, In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men out of all languages of the nations, even shall
take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with
you." Zech. viii. 20. (See also chapters lst, 2d, 4th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 14th of the same prophecy.)
Malachi, Zechariah, and Haggai prophecied after the two tribes had returned from Babylon, and the
Apostle Paul quotes the last, to prove that one, and only one more great revolution shall take place in
favor of the true religion: "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." So much For the
first part of our proposition, viz. that the Jews will actually and literally return to their own land; the
proof of which we close by a single quotation from Amos, who, it is supposed, was contemporary with
Hoshea, and who, after predicting their dispersion and their preservation in that state, ends his
prophecy with these words, "I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the
waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also
make gardens, and eat the fruit thereof; and I will plant them upon their own land, and they shall no
more be pulled up out of the land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God."

The second part of our proposition is, that they shall return to their own land in an unconverted state. It
was noticed in the public journals some time ago that the celebrated Irving and sundry others of the
London preachers had come out on this side, and that the public declaration of their sentiments had
taken very sensible effect on the friends of the London Missionary Society for converting the Jews;
many, if not all of the Dukes, Marquises: Earls, Lords: Viscounts, Esquires, and Gentlemen of the Realm,
haliug withdrawn their subscriptions. Of the Prophets who have spoken of the restoration of the Temple
service, Ezekiel is the one who has been most minute; for he describes particularly the form and size of
the Temple, the duties of the Priesthood; the daily, weekly, and annual services; the Prince's offering,
with the feasts, fasts, tithing, &c. &c. and terminates his prophecy by a detailed account of the new and
beautifui manner in which the land of Canaan is to bc laid out in parallel strips, running from the
Mediterranean sea back to the river Jordan. The Jews never have been located in their land in the
manner described by this Prophet. (See chapters 45th, 47th, and 48th.) Ezekiel says that the name of
their city from that day shall be "the Lord is there;" but how, indeed, should any one hope to see the
Jews converted before their return to Judea, when even now we know not where the mass of them
exists; the tribes of Judah and Benjamin are, indeed, found in all the trading ports of Europe, Asia, and
America; but instead of looking towards the christian religion with any favor, they abhor it and all its
professors, and are even now many of them setting their faces towards Jerusalem and the land of their
fathers. The following notice of this has run the rounds of the English and American Journals.

"A letter from Mr. Wolff, the celebrated missionary to the Jews, dated Cyprus, July 15, states that when
he was at Jaffa last summer,

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about one hundred Jews, chiefly old men and women, arrived at that place, from Constantinople, on
their way to Jerusalem, where they were going to remain until death." A gentleman of equal
respectability, writing from Constantinople more recently, says, that he "heard of a great number of
ships being hired by the Jews to convey them to Jerusalem. He found they were going in expectation of
the near coming of their Messiah. He adds that thousands of families were preparing to embark from all
quarters." Another letter from the south of Europc, dated last November, confirms these statements,
and adds that "their expectations of the Messiah is the reason openly given;" at all events, it is certain
that great numbers have actually embarked, whatever may be the motive that has influenced them.

That they will remain unconverted until the Saviour comes to open their eyes, is noticcd by the Apostle,
Rom. xi. 25. "For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, lest you should be wise in
your own conceits, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be
come in, and so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and
shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." It would appear from this that Jesus personally is to turn away
ungodliness from the Jewish nation. "This is my covenant with them when I shall take away their sins."

These are a few of the proofs which go to sustain our first proposition. When the second comes upon
the carpet, they will be more felt and better understood by the reader, to whom this development may
be altogether new.

DANIEL.

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