"whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not "make a full end of thee." Jer. xxx, 2-II. Here I acknowledge, that I much doubt, whethe truth of this prophecy can by any mean be maintained by those who contend, that the pofterity of Ifrael fhall never more be gathered as a nation; the fame I may fay too of the promife that God would never leave Jacob, till He had done that which He had spoken unto him; neither can this doubt be unreasonable, since the following paffage contains a plain acknowledgement, that without a much happier restoration, than has yet been effected, they will not have received the good promised unto them.-" And

now therefore thus faith the Lord God of "Ifrael concerning this, city, whereof ye fay, "It fhall be delivered into the hand of the king "of Babylon, by the fword, and by the famine, "and by the peftilence: Behold I will gather "them out of all countries, whither I have “driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, "and in great wrath; and I will bring them "again into this place, and I will cause them to dwell fafely. And they fhall be my peo

ple, and I will be their God. And I will give "them one heart, and one way, that they may "fear me for ever, for the good of them, and "of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will

6.

not turn away from them, to do them good, "but

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"but I will put my fear in their they fhall not depart from me.

hearts, that Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land affuredly with my whole “heart, and with my whole foul. For thus faith "the Lord, Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, fo will I bring

upon them all the good that I have promised "them." Jer. xxxii, 36-42.

In the texts I have thus quoted, the words are strong, the affertions decifive, and the prophecies exprefs; but ftrong, decifive, and exprefs as these are, the reader will find other paffages noted in the margin to be no less fo: While the declarations of the prophet Daniel, that in the days of thofe kingdoms, into which the laft of the four great empires hath been. divided, the God of Heaven will fet up a kingdom, which shall break in pieces and confume all thofe kingdoins; and, that the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, fhall be given to the people of the faints of the Moft High §, confirm

Jer. iii, 18; xvi, 14; xxx, 18-22; xxxi, 10-40 ; xxxii. Ezek xx, 40; xxxvi, 22, &c. Joel iii. Obad. xvii, 21, and Zech. throughout.

§ Dan. ii, 44. In the 11th chapter of the Revelations, after the acclamation of the kingdoms of the world (itself a Arong expreffion) are become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Chrift, and the confequent doxology, is is declared, ver. 19, that the temple of God was opened in heaven, and

the

the expectation of an empire, as literally fuch as any that has yet appeared, and fix the eftablishment of it on this very globe, on which the others, mentioned in the fame vifion, have flourifhed. Nevertheless, numerous as these teftimonies are, and direct as is the evidence which they form, it has been thought that objections fufficiently valid against them may be drawn from the general doctrines, that the righteous muft wait for their recompence until the refurrection of the juft; that the wheat and tares muft grow together 'till the harveft; and that the righteous and the wicked shall at one and the fame time appear before the judgment-feat of Chrift, who will then, and not before, feparate the sheep from the goats, and establish the kingdom of righteousness in glory for ever: But furely fuch objections weigh not much; for although the good and pious, who pass through life, wait for their final reward 'till the refurrection of the juft, is it incredible, that before that time God should manifeft peculiar favour to a portion of fuch that will be found in the world? Or, Who will fay, When the harvest alluded to in our Lord's parable of the wheat and tares is to begin? Or, That the univerfal difpenfation of rewards and punishments being

the ark of His teftament was seen in it; an emblem which can relate to that people alone, with whom the covenant to which that ark belonged was made.

to

to be made at the end of the world, precludes a gift of a long age of bleffings to that feed, whose are the adoption, the glory, the covenants and the promises? Indeed, the parable of the wheat and tares itself is fo worded, that if we compare it with other paffages of Holy Writ, it will, I conceive, rather confirm than invalidate that doctrine, which, I think, is contained in the Scriptures-the facred Writers exprefsly distinguish between the prefent and the future age, and of the latter, the Meffiah is in If. ix, 6, called the Father.-Now the word (os), faid our Lord, is the field, and at the end of this age (ἐν τῆ συντελεια τε αἰῶνος τού το the Son of Man fhall fend forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, &c.Now where will you place this kingdom, out of which things that offend may be gathered? You will scarcely fuppofe it to be on the new earth But if you allow it to be that kingdom, which is mentioned by Daniel, as fwallowing up all others, and the foundations of which are already laid here, not only this difficulty vanishes, but there appears the jufteft harmony between the paffages now cited, and what we read in the 14th chapter of the Revelations, ver. 14, 17, where the angels are reprefented as fent forth to reap the earth, previous to the millenary reign of Chrift and His faints. And fince the manifefta

tion of the Meffiah's kingdom on earth, in which hone but true Ifraelites, cleanfed from all iniquity, can have a part, but where fuch will enjoy the happiness, and the glory promised to the feed of Abraham, is preparatory to, and also moft emblematic of that ftill more extended state of felicity to be revealed when the New Heavens and the New Earth fhall appear, it is no wonder that in many parts of Scripture they are not feverally diftinguifhed; but if in others they be most clearly so, it is certainly more reasonable to ufe the last paffages as a clue to the former, than to endeavour to fhelter ourselves behind these against the force of thofe. The texts I am now going to lay before the reader, as containing fuch a distinction, are by no mean obfcure; they deliver their doctrine in a moft marked manner, and great as are the names of fome who have thought lightly of them, their clearness is, I prefume, beyond all reasonable difpute, and their authority, I am fure, is fupreme. In the 38th chapter of Ezekiel, after a moft exprefs promife, delivered in the preceding chapter, that God will bring back both Judah and the tribes of Ifrael to that land in which their fathers bave dwelt, the prophet is directed to address himself unto many diftant nations, the chief of which are called Gog and Magog, and part of this address is as follows, ver. 8." After many "daies thou fhalt be vifited: In the latter years

'

"thou