the four successive conditions, of captivity and temporary restitution, of dispersion and final restoration; it would be incumbent on them to reconcile the notion of a repeated restitution, with the tenor of the prophetical description.

Should even this task be peformed, we shall find much that remains to be accomplished, and that will induce a conviction, how far we must look beyond the circumstances of a temporal restoration, for the conditions which will be adequate to solve every difficulty in the extraordinary case of this people. In the prophetical descriptions, on which so much stress is laid by the advocates for a temporal establishment of the Jews at Jerusalem, there is much which no method of literal interpretation can reconcile with their favorite position. A single example will establish the point, as fully as the most extensive induction.

'Rejoice ye with Jerusalem,' declares the Prophet Isaiah, with reference to the promised restoration, 'be glad with her....for thus saith the Lord, behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, ' and the glory of the Gentiles, like a flowing stream ....And I will send those that escape unto the 'nations....and they shall declare my glory among 'the Gentiles. And they shall bring all your ' brethren, for an offering unto the Lord, out of all 'nations....to my holy mountain Jerusalem....And 403 Isaiah lxvi. 10. 19, 20, 21. 23.

'I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, 'saith the Lord....And it shall come to pass, that 'from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath 'to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. 2403 In such descriptions the natural impossibility of the case compels us, in the illustration of their force, to have recourse to a figurative exposition. By the impracticability of the supposition, that all nations shall repair to Jerusalem from sabbath to sabbath,' we are necessarily forced to abandon the literal signification. The limits of interpretation being thus indefinitely enlarged; the literal restoration of the Jews can be less certainly proved from such authorities, than the final conversion of all nations. For of the different senses which may be extracted from the text, the latter is encumbered with the fewest difficulties.

The preceding view of the ultimate allotment of the Jews, however opposed to notions at present indulged of their future destiny, is not without the support of ancient and modern authority. Of the primitive Fathers, who, from the earliest to the latest period, maintained the universal conversion of the Jews, 404 many of the most highly reputed have rejected the notion of their temporal restora

404 Tertul. adv. Marc. Lib. III. cap. xxiii. August. Civ. Dei Lib. XX. cap. xxix.

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tion, as unsupported by scripture.40 And of the members of their own communion, who have conformed to the Christian faith, one atleast of the most learned and enlightened has controverted the supposition, with a force of reasoning, which appears to be invincible, 400

Among the glories with which the millennial reign will be distinguished upon earth, we must therefore abandon the notion, that the Temple will be rebuilt, or the Jews re-established in Palestine. And with this illusion, the splendid vision vanishes, that our Lord will return to this earth with the Apostles, and the throne of David be again raised up, and established for one thousand years at Jerusalem. However certainly fixed in the reveries of modern seers, the supposition derives no authority from the inspiration of the Prophets. Of so unpropitious an error, advantage may be readily taken, in advancing the projects of the adversaries of Christ's kingdom, from whose ambitious schemes much of that calamity may be expected, which is a distinguishing sign of the great consummation.407 Among the marks by which its approach may be

405 Vid. Barnab. Epist. cap. v. xv. Origen. contr. Cels. Lib. IV. cap. xxii. Hilar. in Ps. cxviii. 18. Didym. de Spir. Sanct. Lib. III. ad init. Chrysost. contr. Jud. Orat. v. Hieron. Com. in Esai. lxvi. 21. Dionys. ap eund. ibid. in procem. lib. xviii.

discerned, we are taught to expect the appearance of false Messiahs, 408 who will no doubt make that grand object the aim and end of their ambition. And by an extraordinary waywardness or fatality, a secret association extends its roots through every part of these kingdoms, to the interests of which multitudes are blindly and inconsiderately bound, under the most tremendous obligations; an association, which, while it holds forth the promotion of fraternal union as its professed purpose, has the restoration of the Jewish Temple for its specific object. What may be the political results of

409

408 Matt. xxiv. 24.

409 It may be, perhaps, necessary to explain here, that the writer of this work neither is, nor ever has been, a member of any masonic or secret society. He resisted (as he trusts, providentially) every advance to induce him to become one, from an avowed conviction, that if not intended to oppose, they were constituted to supersede Christianity. After an investigation, carefully prosecuted, he congratulates himself with the conviction, that his presentiments were but too solidly founded. What he has advanced on the subject of these societies, above, is founded upon a work, intended only for the initiated, and accordingly written in cryptographic characters. It required, however, but a slight exertion of ingenuity to decypher the mysteries of the cabbala, in which the arcana of the craft is concealed. And, as the only method of gaining credit to his assertions, he now publishes the discovery, for the benefit of those who may be drawn into such associations, under the idea that the secrets of which they profess to be the depositories, consist of anything but the most sublime fooleries. The secret

such a combination of power, is no problem for the solution of the statesman's sagacity; but may be read in the convulsions, with which, at this moment, the frame of social order is shaken to its foundation in Europe. Whatever be the projects, to which chance or opportunity may hereafter direct this combination of forces; in the restitution of the Temple of Jerusalem, there is an indirect

cyphers under which this profoundly anile lore is concealed, are of two kinds. One consists in an inversion of the order of the letters of words, in such a manner that the last and first of the characters are successively withdrawn, and thrown into a new combination, according to the mode expressed in this scale;

2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1.

By this device, where was is transformed into hrwsaeew; 'your friend' into orrednifuy, &c. The other kind, which belongs to a higher degree, consists in a substitution of the letters of the alphabet, arranged in an inverted order, according to this scale;

The characters of the upper line being substituted for those of the lower, or contrariwise; Gunkov is used to express Temple;' klixs, porch;' slfhv, house;' xfyrgh, cubits,' &c. This system of cryptography is evidently founded on the Hebrew Cabbala, and appears to have been invented by Jews; as indeed the object of the association, which is directed to the rebuilding of the Temple, very fully establishes. The work from which this information has been deduced by the author is Finch's Masonic Treatise, 1802. Deal. It bears a seal on the title, and has prefixed to it the approbation of several Masters of Lodges.