ever, from the difficulties attendant on this, the question of fact may be confidered; for though neither the fyftem of the antient, nor that of the modern Millenaries be well founded, still the antient people of the Lord may be gathered together, and fee a long age of profperity under the protection of God and His Chrift: And there is the fame reafon for now calling on men to attend to the predictions which contain affurances of this, as has been affigned for the delivery of those promises of future falvation, made by the prophets to their country when in a state of adversity and fuffering. To preserve the afflicted Ifraelites from defpondency, in the midst of rebukes for their disobedience, and menaces of punishment, the future mercies of God were revealed, and the hopes of the remnant who had not forfeited their inheritance kept alive by declarations, that the promise once given fhould never fail; to confirm the wavering, encourage the fearful, roufe the unthinking, and ftrike awe into the fcoffer, and the faithlefs, it is now requifite to demonftrate, that the promifes which have not yet been fulfilled, have ftill not failed, fince the time at firft marked

marked for their accomplishment is not yet arrived, though the things preparatory to it have hitherto been regularly coming to pass, and nothing has yet happened to render the event either impoffible, or even less probable; while the triumph which the unbelievers might gain from fuppofed failures, is destroyed by its being proved, that those whose interpretations have been false, have been deceived through their own ignorance or hastiness only, and that that portion of their hopes which was juftly grounded on the promises, is not loft, but only deferred. The Jews might expect, that whenever the Meffiah should appear, the kingdom should be restored unto Ifrael, and all the promised glories of his reign be displayed; but the prophets had declared, that He muft appear firft in humility, and through fufferings make His way to glory. In thinking that their Master would immediately manifest His power unto the world, by freeing their nation from fubjection, the apoftles were mistaken; nevertheless, their expectation of the kingdom's being given unto Him were juft, though it was not for them to know the times or the seasons which the Father

Father hath put into His own power. The whole controverfy between the believer and the infidel may be fairly rested on one point, and that too a point which, if a love of truth be not wanting, may be very foon determined; Our Lord, the prophets, and the apostles have affumed to themselves the power of prophecy, as a certain proof of their Divine Miffion, and have left us many predictions in confequence thereof; "Hath "time then shewn the juftice of this their

claim, or not?" A fairer iffue cannot be propofed; let every man therefore, with a dégree of seriousness proportioned to the opinion he entertains of the importance of the fanctions of religion, confider the fcriptural predictions, and compare the accounts therein given of the fate of the Jewish nation, of the treatment and fortunes of the Christian church, and of the state of that part of the earth which hath hitherto been the fcene of thofe fortunes, with what has come to pafs; and when he has discovered, how accurately the events have thus far correfponded with the words of the preachers, let him deny, if he can, that the spirit of prophecy dwelt in them.

Α

DISSERTATION,

&c.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

WH

HETHER the fortunes of the pofterity of Ifrael have hitherto been, and will in future prove confiftent with the predictions of the Holy Scriptures concerning them, is a queftion, in which the Infidel, the Jew, and the Chriftian are equally interested, fince on the determination of it depend the safety of the one, and the deliverance, and hopes of the others: If then to an enquiry clofely connected with a point of importance fo general, I venture to claim the attention of all, arrogance or prefumption will not, I truft, be laid to my charge; neither fhall I be accufed, of calling those who may perufe the prefent Tract, from the confideration of fubjects of more confequence, to that of trifles. The Prophets of the Lord have addreffed themselves unto all lands, and

they frequently call on the men of every nation, to attend to their declarations, as containing matter of univerfal concern: Terrible are the judgements, which they denounce against thofe who fhall refuse to liften unto them: Fearful is the vengeance, with which they threaten the careless finner, and the obftinate unbeliever: the name in which they fpeak, fully entitling their words to attention, and the manifest truth of those which have already had their completion, forming a juft claim to credit for the reft: While they hold up the mercy of God as being ever prepared to receive the penitent, and as ready to give unto the feed of Abraham, if they will turn unto him, the bleffings promised to their forefathers; and afford unto the fincere Christian, by the accuracy with which they have foretold the fortunes of the Church, a light which may guide him through the gloom raised by fuperftition; and conftantly manifeft unto him the path of truth, though all around him be enveloped in the thick darkness of infidelity. For however low the cause of true religion may at prefent appear, however active and inveterate. its enemies may be, however cold and indolent many who would be thought its friends, the faithful fervant of Chrift need not be disheartened, fince fuch a state of things was foretold by the Apoftles of his Lord *; and even the Lord his * 2 Tim. iii, 1. 2 Pet. iii, 3. Jude, verfe 18.

felf