gift 1-11-1931 THE PREFACE. THE events that have lately taken place in Europe, and those which are likely to refuit from the war in which we are at present engaged, are so great, important, and interesting, that one cannot help being anxious to know whether God is leading us in the course of his Providence, and saying as the prophet did to the angel, Dan. x. 6. "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" or, as it is in Isa. xxi. II. "Watch" man, what of the night? Watchman, what " of the night?" or, How much of this long night of trouble is past, and how much is there yet to come? or, When will it be morn ing? To folve this important question, to shew, if possible, what part of the prophecies corresponds with the present times; which of : of the vials we are at present under, and from thence to form a rational conjecture concerning the time when the great events mentioned in the prophecies are destined to happen, was, in part, my design in writing the following discourse; in which, though I have not had all the success I could wish, yet I have succeeded so far. I have made it exceeding probable, that the principal step of Antichrift's fall will be either in the year 12 or 28 of the present century; and that his final overthrow will be at least an hundred years sooner than the time that Lowman and Bishop Newton have set for it. I could have faid a great deal more in proof of this point, and have actually done it in a separate treatise, On the Rise and Fall of the Papacy, which I intended to have published along with this, On the Converfion of the Jews; but am unable, through want of health and bodily infirmity, to bear the fatigue of doing it at present. m A DISSERTATION ON THE CONVERSION AND RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. A DISCOURSE ON ROMANS xi. 11. I Say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but through their fall falvation is come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy. TH HE design of the Apostle in this and the two preceding chapters, is to vindicate the justice, wifdom, and goodness of the Almighty, in one of the most remarkable dispensations of his providence that has ever happened fince the beginning of time; I mean, the calling of the Gentiles, and the rejection of the Jews. And, in profecution of this design,, he first shows us, that the divine conduct, in this difpensation, was perfectly agreeable to the natural notions that men have of equity and justice: That the blessings of the gospel, like all the other benefits which God has bestowed upon men, are the effects |