• foretold from the scriptures, have all come to • pass, we doubt not but God in his time will < accomplish this: and whenever he doth, tho • such an accession of strength be not needed, • it will be so great a demonstration of the certain relation of the Scripture Prophecies to the • Messias, as will put to filence all infidelity." Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry's defence of Criftianity. APPEN OBSERVATIONS on the PROPHECIES relating to the Restoration of the JEWS; BEING AN ANSWER TO THE OBJECTIONS of a late AUTHOR. WHILST I was writing the preceding ob servations, there came to my hands a pamphlet, intituled, The Rise and Fall of the Holy Gity and Temple of Jerufalem, &c. by GREGORY SHARPE, LL.D. in which the restoration of the Jews, which I have here been endeavouring to prove, is abfolutely denied. The character which this learned and ingenious divine very deservedly bears in the literary world, would render me inexcusable, if I was wholly to overlook the objections which he has brought against the opinion I have endeavoured to establish ; I shall therefore, with all due deference to one, whose learned and excellent defences of Christianity are so justly admired, point out the passages in the abovementioned K tioned work, in which I apprehend this learned and ingenious Doctor to have been mistaken; adding, at the fame time, the scripture grounds and reasons, which oblige me to differ from him! The first thirty pages of his second edition contain nothing that I shall object to, but, on the contrary, many curious and entertaining observations. But p. 33. he expresses himself in the following manner: They (the Jews) as a people, together with ' their city, were destroyed : they were no more to live in one place; they were to be difpersed, and scattered over the face of the ' whole earth; they were to show themselves a standing miracle of God's mercy and judgment, to produce and bear witness to the ora'cles of God, which they confirm by their own appearance under the circumstances they now 6 are, trustees and guardians, as it were, of those ' divine records for the use of Christians. What • would have still preserved and kept them toge'ther in one place, the city and the temple, were ' taken from them, they have now no home; • and yet are as diftinct from all other men, with whom they live in great numbers over all the earth, as when they inhabited Jerusalem in its 'ancient splendor. They could have no temple, nor any sacrifice, but in Jerusalem, and when • that was destroyed, they were dispersed. Circumcifion, the mark of the covenant, or token • of the promise, could be of no peculiar use ' when 6 I when the covenant of promise was fulfilled, and * the promifed feed had evidently appeared in ' the perfon of Jesus. All that was peculiar to * the Jews; all that obstructed the general union ' of mankind under one God and Saviour of us 'all, the calling of the Gentiles, who by adop' tion are made heirs of the promife; all that was local and temporary became obsolete, and ' of no use or significancy; for by the accom plishment of the prophecies, and the appearance of the Son of God, all these things were abolished; facrifices had their end; the carnal * ordinances, the temple, the Jewish polity, facred and civil, as connected with the city of Jerufalem, all were destroyed in one general • ruin, and the distinction of the tribes is entirely 'loft.' That the Jews were to be dispersed and scat tered over the face of the whole earth, that they now shew themselves a standing miracle of God's judgment, and will hereafter of his mercy, I allow; and also that they bear witness to the ora eles of God, which they confirm by their own appearance under the circumftances they now are but it does not from hence follow, that they are no more to live in one place; for though what would have still preserved and kept them toge ther, the city and the temple, were taken from them, it cannot from hence be concluded that these shall never be restored to them again. That circumcifion, the mark of the covenant, or token of the promife, could be of no peculiar use when the promised feed had appeared, by no means follows; for if we look into the 17th chapter of Genesis, we shall find the covenant, of which circumcifion was to be a token between God and Abraham, was this mentioned in the 8th verse: And I will give unto thee, and to thy feed after thec, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an EVERLASTING poffeffion, and I wilt be their GOD. Now if Abraham, who, as St. Stephen obferves, Acts vii. 5. had no inheritance in Canaan, no not so much as to fet his foot on, is still to have this promise made good to him, and his feed have not yet entered upon the everlasting poffeffion of it here mentioned, it is evident that the token may be yet of peculiar use to them, as it affures them of the certainty of God's fulfilling it to them hereafter. Circumcifion therefore was not a token of the promised feed, or that in Abrabam's feed should all the nations of the earth be bleffed; for tho this had been also promised him, yet God makes no mention of it when he repeats to Abraham the contents of the covenant of which circumcifion was to be the token, Gen. xvii. 6, 7, 8. Neither do the rites peculiar to the Jews, seem to me to have any way obstructed the general union of mankind under one Gon and Saviour of us all, or the calling of the Gentiles, they being in fact called while these things fubfifted. All that was local must indeed cease at the difperfion of the Jews; but that by the accomplishment of the prophecies, and the appearance of the Son of God, all these things were abolished, |