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45 JEHOVAH * their God. But I will for their fakes + remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the fight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am Jehovah.

Here we have a promise of not abhorring or utterly destroying them, but of remembering the covenant which the Lord made with their ancestors, &c. Now the purport of this covenant we find, Gen. xiii. 14. And the Lord said unto Abram, Lift up thine eyes, and look from the placé where thou art, northward and southward, and eastward and westward; for all the land that thou seests to thee will I give it, and to thy feed FOR EVER.

Now how this covenant can be faid to be remembered, if Ifrael is to continue dispersed, and to be for ever excluded from the land here spoken of, is what I can by no means conceive. As to the return from the Babylonish captivity, it will not at all answer the intent of the promise. Because the being restored to their own land for a few ages, and afterwards for near four times as

* So it ought to be translated, not only here, but in all other places of the Old Testament, where the fame word oc curs; Jehovah being the proper name which God had af fumed to be diftinguished by from all other lords and gods.

† The words, their fakes, here mean the fakes of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, mentioned ver. 42. Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Ifaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I rememberi and I will remember the land.

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long a period being dispersed among all nations, without any hopes of a return, can never be the true meaning of giving that land to the feed of Abram for ever *.

II.

DEUT. iv. 27. And the Lord shall scatter you 29 among the nations, &c. But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy 30 foul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedi31 ent to his voice: (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which he sware unto them.

This

* I cannot here pass by an explication of this text, Gen. xiii. 15. by the learned Mr. MEDE, in his anfwer to Dr. TWISS's fourth letter.

• I doubt not but you have felt some scruple (as well as * others) at our Saviour's demonstration of the refurrection in • the gospel, Mat. xxii. Mark xii. God said to Moses in the ' bush, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Ifaac, and • the God of Jacob: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Ergo, Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob must one day ⚫ rise again from the dead. How does this conclufion fol• low? Do not the spirits of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob yet • live? God should then be the God of the living, though • their bodies should never rise again. Therefore some So

cinians argue from this place, that the spirits of the juft lie • in the fleep of death until the refurrection. Or might not • the Sadducees have replied, the meaning to be of what God ' had been, not of what he should be, viz. That he was that • God

This Prophecy, as appears by ver. 30. relates to the latter days, which in scripture always fignify the times after the coming of Christ; and, therefore, cannot be applied to the return from the Babylonish captivity.

III.

DEUT. XXX. 1. And it shall come to pass when all these things come upon thee, the blessing and the curse that I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither

• God who had once chosen their fathers, and made a cove' nant with them; I am the God that brought Abraham out of • Chaldee, who appeared to Ifaac and Jacob whilst they lived, • &c. But how would this then make for the refurrection ? Surely it doth. He that could not err said it. Let us, ' therefore, see how it may.

• I say, therefore, the words must be understood, with • supply of that they have reference to; which is the cove

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nant which the Lord made with Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob; ⚫ in respect whereof he calls himself their God. This cove

nant was to give unto them, and to their feed, the land where' in they were strangers: (mark it) Not to their feed, or off*Springs only, but to themselves. Vide Loca.

• Το Abraham, Gen. xiii. 15. xv. 7. & xvii. 8. Το Ifaac, xxvi. 3. To Jacob, xxxv. 12. To all three, Exod. vi. 4, 8. 'Deut. i. 8. and xi. 21. and xxx. 20. If God then make good to Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob this his covenant, where

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by he undertook to be their God, then they must needs one ' day live again to inherit the promised land, which hitherto

' they have not done. For the God that thus covenanted

' with them, covenanted not to make his promise good to

' them dead, but living. This is the strength of the divine

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argument, and irrefragable; which otherwise would not infer any fuch conclufion.'

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2 the Lord thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice, according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and 3 with all thy foul: That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compaffion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered 4 thee. If any of thine be driven out to the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee, 5 And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it: and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.

Amongst the things which should come upon them, which are described at large in the two preceding chapters, it is particularly said, ver. 64. chap. xxviii. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other. Therefore this captivity, from which the Lord will bring them back, cannot be the Babylonian; during which, they were very far from being scattered among all people from one end of the earth to the other. Observe farther, ver. 5. that the Lord promises to do them good, and to multiply them above their fathers; which last circumstance does not appear to have been their case, during the time that they possessed their land, after the return from Babylon.

THE

THE next Prophecy in order of time, wherein we meet with any thing that evidently relates to the restoration of Ifrael, is that of JOEL, who began to prophesy to the kingdom of Judah about 800 years before Christ.

IV.

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JOEL ii. 18. Then will the Lord be jealous for 19 his land, and pity his people. Yea, the Lord will answer, and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a

20 reproach among the heathen. But will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and defolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea; and his stink shall come up, be21 cause he hath done great things. Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do 25 great things. And I will restore to you the ears that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great 26 army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty and be fatisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with 27 you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Ifrael, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed..

Chap. iii. 1. For behold in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of 2 Judah and Jerufalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people,

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