immediately follow, as it is written, there shell come out of Sion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodlinefs from Facob. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their fins. Now this coming of the deliverer out of Sion, cannot mean our Lord's first coming; for ungodlinefs was fo far from being taken away from Jacob in those days, that they had then more of it perhaps than at any other time whatfoever, but of his fecond coming, when he fhall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, by taking away their fins; that is, by remitting the punishment of them, and redeeming them from that captivity they have fo long suffered upon account of them.The new covenant with the houfe of Ifrael and the houfe of Judah, mentioned here, and Jer. xxxi. 31. is likewife plainly future; for it follows, ver. 34. of Jeremiah, that when this covenant shall be made, they shall all know the Lord, from the least of them unto the greatest of them; which is very far from having come to pafs as yet. Add to this, what the Lord faith in the two next verfes, that the feed of Ifrael fhall not ceafc from being a nation before him for ever; and what follows, that the city fhall be built unto the Lord from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner—and that it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down, any more for ever. Thefe circumftances, which are to attend the new covenant here fpoken of, prove to a demonstration, that this covenant is not yet made M 2

with

with the houfes cf Ifrael and Judah. This language therefore might be used properly enough, though the greateft part, or even all the ten tribes, were carried away to return no more, till fome future coming of the Meffiah. But, (fays our Author), if thefe tribes are yet loft, the gospel is not yet preached unto them, the new covenant not made with them, and therefore their Meffiah 6 or Chrift is not yet come: a circumftance deftructive of Christianity!'

That the gospel is not yet preached to them is very true, nor the new covenant made with them; but it does not follow from hence, that their Meffiah or Chrift is not yet come. They do not know him to be come indeed, nor have as yet received thofe advantages from his coming which we have, and they themselves fhall hereafter. And this is alfo the cafe of many other nations in the world. But neither of thefe circumstances infer any confequences deftructive of Chriftianity. The truth of our and their Meffiah's being already come, does not depend upon their, or any other nation's knowing, or not knowing of it; if it did, the confequences might indeed be deftructive of Chriftianity; but, thanks be to GOD, that event is too well established to us, to be rendered precarious by any people's ignorance thereof.

As to the tribes never yet returning, but remaining in fome part of the earth, being a fiction of the Jews, fupported only by apocryphal

writings,

writings, and a most extravagant affertion of JoSephus, &c. there is no reafon for this opinion, the apocryphal writings being fupported and countenanced by other accounts in history, not to mention the reasons given by fome learned and judicious writers for the genuineness and authenticity of those books, for which fee Art. LIII. of the preceding work; and the extravagant affertion of Jofephus, tho' he makes use of an hyperbole, is nevertheless an argument of there being great numbers of the ten tribes in those parts in his time. That a new covenant is to be made • when Christ shall come with the house of Ifrael; when all Ifrael, all the tribes, the ten tribes of Ifrael, the house of Ifrael, as well as the house of Judah, will be faved, I allow, and contend for; but I am convinced by the fcripture reasons before mentioned, that this will be at the fecond coming of Chrift; and therefore the denying any new covenant to have been made with all the house of Ifrael at his firft appearance, is by no means denying the Meffiah to have appeared, nor is it any ways deftructive of Chriftianity.

Thus have I carefully and (I hope) impartially confidered those parts of the Doctor's discourse, which oppose the opinions laid down in the foregoing work. Many other paffages of his discourse I allow to be very curious, learned and ingenious, and to contain fome excellent arguments in de

fence

fence of Chriftianity. If any thing I have here advanced shall be proved to have a contrary tendency, I fhall be very ready to retract it, and render my fincere thanks to him who fhall make me fenfible of it; my chief defign in writing these obfervations being to prove the truth of the revelations delivered to us in the Bible, from the Prophecies relating to the Jews therein contained, and to endeavour to lead us into a right understanding of them.

May the GOD of Truth lead us all into the knowledge of it, and give us that difpofition of mind that shall be ever ready to embrace it, without regard to our own, or other's prejudices and opinions.

Θεω Δόξα.