added; but if these which are here produced are not fufficient to convince him, it would be in vain to increase their number by the addition of fuch as carry less weight with them, or might be more liable to exception. That every application of the Prophecies I have here made, or every argument I have deduced from them, should be fatisfactory to the reader, is more than I can reafonably expect. I am very far from thinking myfelf wholly secured from the errors and prejudices incident to all uninspired writers, when they treat of theological fubjects; but I must here defire the reader to take notice, that if any one of the numerous prophecies here produced, is by me rightly explained, and the arguments drawn from thence folid and unanfwerable, the point I have undertaken to prove is thereby afcertained and indubitable, tho' all the rest should feem to be inconclufive; because one clear and evident prediction delivered by the Holy Spirit, can never be contrary to another: fo that, except there can be produced as clear and evident a prediction to the contrary, from the fame authority, every one fuch fingle prediction is decisive.

Before I conclude, it may be expected by fome that I should fay fomewhat concerning the time when this restoration is to take place; to whom I answer, in the words of our Lord, that it is not for us to know the times and the Seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. All that we can be certain of in relation hereto, is, that Jerufatem

rusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, as our Saviour tells us, Luke xxi. 24. What is meant by the times of the Gentiles being fulfilled, is, according to the most judicious expositors, when the times appointed for the duration of the dominion of the four monarchies shall be compleated *.

We now live under the last state of the fourth monarchy, after the division of it into ten kingdoms, represented to Nebuchadnezzar by the feet and toes of the image which he saw in his dream; but the precise time when the stone cut out without hands shall smite the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, or partly strong and partly

* The Jews shall be carried away captive over all na' tions, and Jerufalem trodden down of the Gentiles, until the • times of the Gentiles be fulfilled: that is, (as was said before) • until the monarchies of the Gentiles should be finished. • For these times of the Gentiles are that last period of the • fourth kingdom prophecied of Daniel vii. a time, times, * and half a time; at the end of which the Angel swears • unto Daniel, chap. xii. 7: that God should accomplish to • scatter the power of the holy people. This is that fulness • of the Gentiles, which being come, St. Paul tells us, Rom. • xi. 26. The Deliverer shall come out of Sion, and all Ifrael shall be saved. And the Angel in Apoc. x. 6. renews the • fame oath to St. John, which he sware before to Daniel, • That when these times (N. B.) should end and be no longer, the • mystery of GOD should be finished, as he had declared to his • fervants the Prophets. Amen.' Mede's Works, Book III. Daniel's Weeks explained, p. 709.

brittle, brittle, as the angel interprets it, is not perhaps now discoverable by us. There are certain periods of time, appointed by the providence of God, for the discovery of several of the prophetic vifions, before which they are closed up and fealed, i. e. not to be understood. That the time of this restoration is one of these secrets of Divine Providence, appears from the 12th chapter of Daniel, where, after the Prophet had been informed that Michael shall stand up the great Prince which standeth for the children of his (Daniel's) people, &c. it is added, ver. 4. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book to the time of the end. And again, when one faid unto the man cloathed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? the answer was, that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when be shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. This the Prophet understood not, as appears by his answer. And I heard but understood not: Then faid I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? to which question he received for answer a repetition of what had been faid to him before. Go thy ways, Daniel; for the words are closed and sealed till the time of the end.

Sir Isaac Newton, in his dissertation upon this Prophecy, p. 251. says, 'that it should not be known before the last age of the world; and therefore it makes for the credit of this Prophecy phecy that it is not yet understood. The folly ' of interpreters has been to foretell times and ⚫ things by this Prophecy, as if God designed

to make them Prophets; by such rashness they ' have not only exposed themselves, but brought ' that part of fcripture into contempt. The de

८

sign of God was much otherwife: He gave ' this, and other Prophecies in the Old Tefta

6

ment, not to gratify men's curiofity, by enabling ' them to foreknow things, but that, after they are fulfilled, they might be interpreted by the event; and his own providence, not the inter'preter's, be then fulfilled that as many as • will take pains in this study, may fee sufficient 'instances of God's providence. Amongst the

6

interpreters of the last age, there is scarce one • of note who has not made some discovery worth ' knowing; and thence I gather, that God is a'bout opening these mysteries: an encourage'ment this, to be more particularly attentive to ' these things.'

The natural consequence of such an attention to this and other Prophecies, would be a thorough conviction in our minds of the truth of that revelation by which they were delivered to us, and in which they are contained; and this indeed is the main end and design of these discourses, which I think cannot well fail of having this effect upon every ingenuous mind, that will be at the trouble of comparing the several prophecies relating to the Jewish nation with the events. That That they were to be dispersed and scattered among all nations of the earth is repeatedly foretold by the Prophets, and that they shall finally be reftored, never to be again dispersed, is likewife as often predicted by the fame Prophets. The first of these we see most literally fulfilled, and the latter therefore it is most highly reasonable to expect. In the mean time (as a learned writer fays), we fee this people alone, by a fingular ' miracle of Providence, preferved alive to this

day, under persecutions and oppreffions more ' than enough to have extinguished their race, ' preferved entire, and unmixed with the nations ' of the world, among whom they are scattered. ' All the remains of other nations are swallowed

८

up, or perished. The Ammonites, the Moabites, ' the Edomites, their neighbours, not one of them ' are diftinguished at home from the new-comers ' into their land, not one cast or tribe are to be ' found diftinct in any other country. The Jews only, of all the nations of the world, remain a feparate people, in their laws and religion, as 'from Moses; retaining the same hope of the blessings of the Meffiah, as in the Prophets days, notwithstanding the disappointment of that hope, • and the delay thereof during their difperfion, for ⚫ above fixteen hundred years; as if they were re' ferved and supported by God for this very purpose, to be an instance of his goodness to them,

' and of the truth of his Prophets at their re

6

turn.

And fince other more improbable events

3

' foretold