Rom-11.26.

It remains therefore, that by the elect must here be meant no other than the Jews or Ifraelites, who are commonly distinguished by that appellation in fcripture, and who, as a nation, have been in reality, and still are, notwithstanding the punishments which they have undergone, and still fuffer, the elect of God, i. e. a people whom He intends to take under his more especial protection, and to render glorious, with regard to outward circumstances, above all the nations upon earth. Another argument for the restoration of the Jews, is contained in the 24th verse of the 21st chapter of St. Luke: Jerufalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled; for this implies, that after those times of the Gentiles, it shall no longer be trodden down by the Gentiles, but shall be restored to the Jews agreeably to the predictions of the Prophets.

6

And here I cannot omit a text which has gene

rally puzzled those who oppose the notion of the

• long captivity, a day, as Deut. xxxii. 35. et alibi apud Pro

phetas. And what if in our daily prayer (give us this day

our daily bread) day be to be taken for the whole of our

• life? For instead of St. Matthew's (this day), speaking af

ter the Hebrew notion, St. Luke hath it in the fame peti

• tion καθ' ἡμέραν, that is, every day. So St. Paul, Heb, iii. 13. Exhort one another (καθ' εκαςην ημέραν) every day, whilst it is called to-day.' Mede, Book V. Chap. III.

He then proceeds to show that this was the opinion of the primitive fathers, by quotations from Irenæus, Justin Martyr, Cyprian, and Lactantius; for which I refer the reader to the abovementioned chapter.

Jews

Jews restoration, and the millennial kingdom of Chrift upon earth, Matt. xxvi. 29. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom; or as it is, Mark xiv. 25. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of GOD. In St. Luke xxii. 18. For I say unto you, that I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of GOD Shall come. To which let me add, ver. 29, 30. of the fame chapter, And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and fit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Ifrael; and its parallel, Matt. xix. 28. And Jesus said unto them, Verily 1 Say unto you, that ye which have followed me * in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall fit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall fit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Ifrael.

It is allowed, by all sensible expofitors, that the plain and literal sense of scripture ought never to be departed from, except where such literal sense is either impoffible or contradictory to what the fcripture teaches in other places, or else is evidently a metaphorical expression. That there is no impoffibility in the literal fenfe of these

* The words in the regeneration ought not to be joined (as in our tranflation) to the words, ye that have followed me, but the comma placed after the word me; the true sense not being, ye that have followed me in the regeneration shall fit, &c. but ye that have followed me shall in the regeneration fit, &c.

14

texts,

1

texts, every one must allow, and that it is contradictory to other places of scripture, is so far from being the cafe, that, on the contrary, fuch a state of refidence of our Lord, and the faints upon earth, after his second coming, as these texts feem to imply, is not only perfectly agreeable to all the Old-Teftament Prophecies, many of which I have here laid before the reader, but is also exprefly afferted by St. John, Rev. xx. 4. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither bis image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5. But the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. That this reign of Chrift and the faints is to be upon earth, is plain from what follows in the 8th and 9th verses, concerning Gog and Magog, who are, when the thousand years are expired, to go up on the breadth of the earth, and compass the camp of the Saints about, and the beloved city. The literal sense therefore being neither impoffible, nor contradictory to other places of scripture, the only remaining way to evade it, is to suppose the expreffions here to be metaphorical; and this is what those, who are highly prejudiced against a literal mean

ing, have had recourse to: But he that can fuppofe drinking of This fruit of the vine, which was actually then in the hand of our Lord, can fig

nify any thing else but what the words themselves

do

do express, or can suppose the drinking of it new in the kingdom of God, to be only a metaphorical drinking, may full as well suppose that our Lord's Supper was nothing real, but only a metaphorical eating and drinking: Nay farther, that the accounts we have of his life and death, are metaphorical, for these are not expressed in more clear terms. To conclude, such a liberty as these metaphorical commentators here take with the plain words of scripture, would, if allowed, render the whole of the facred writings unintelligible and uncertain.

I shall mention but one more argument in favour of the restoration I have undertaken to prove, and that such a one as (if duly attended to) is of weight enough to determine the point in dispute,

LVI.

Acts i. 6. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou. at this time restore again the kingdom to Ifrael ? 7 And he faid unto them, It is not for you to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

Immediately before our Lord's ascension, the Apostles being come together, put this question to him, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Ifrael? This plainly shows, that the Apostles themselves had an expectation that the kingdom or fovereignty of the country of Judea,

f

which was then in the hands of the Roman em peror, should at some time or other be restored to the Ifraelites. Whether this opinion of theirs was well grounded or no (I think) will best appear from our Lord's answer: And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times and seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. Our Lord here does not deny the truth of that restoration they expected, but only says, it was not for them to know the Times and Seafons when such a restoration was to take place. Now can it be imagined, that if the Apostles had been in an error of fuch consequence, our Lord would not have endeavoured to fet them right, and have answered in some such manner as he did to the Sadducees, Ye do err, not knowing the fcripture; instead of which, He only declares, that the times or feafons when he should restore the kingdom to Ifrael, (which was the only thing they inquired after) God had put in his own power. If therefore the kingdom is never to be restored to Ifrael, our Lord here informed his Apostles, that God had put in his own power the times and seasons of that which was never to happen; but this is a manner of speaking that is inconfiftent with common sense: how much more fo with divine wisdom!

Thus have I laid before the reader the most remarkable Prophecies relating to the future restoration of the Jews. Many others might have been added;