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ever yet been given "unto Abraham and his seed for ever."

To contend that the names Israel, Judah, and Ephraim, are used by the Holy Spirit to signify one and the same people, the Jews, is indeed to make God such a one as ourselves. The accuracy and precision which are uniformly apparent throughout the sacred volume absolutely forbid such licence. Besides, how can the word Ephraim, the name of one tribe, be used to signify Judah, another tribe, to which it appears by Ezek. xxxvii. Judah is ordained to be united in the latter day? If therefore these promises remain yet unfulfilled, their accomplishment, being future, must be considered as belonging to the Millennial day, when the seed of Abraham, part in the flesh, and part in spiritual bodies, with Abraham their father, shall sit down in the glories of that kingdom, which the Lord shall then establish upon earth, and in the land of Judah. It is matter not of speculation, nor of conjecture, but a subject proper for the investigator of prophecy, to consider whether these things are revealed. And if the Scriptures, according to the plain import of their words, point to such events, it may be asked, whether we are warranted in setting up our own opinions of probability, in opposition to the manifest declarations of the word of

truth. Indeed the right question is this-What saith the Scripture?" How readest thou?"-" To the law and to the testimony" therefore, and "if we speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in us."

The promise to Israel, to Jacob, to Judah, and to Ephraim, that they shall be gathered again, and established in their own land, may be traced in every part of prophecy. And they are each of them spoken of substantively as a distinct person or people. When the ten tribes separated themselves from Judali, so that there were formed two kingdoms, the seat of government with the ten tribes always remained in the tribe of Ephraim; and hence the tribes collectively are often spoken of under that name, see Ezek. xxxvii. 19, but it is a name that cannot be used to signify the Jews, (the tribe of Judah) more especially as, in many passages, Judah and Ephraim are together spoken of, as two distinct and separate persons or people, whom the Lord shall unite into one in hist appointed time. The ten tribes, as already remarked, have been long searched for, and in a great measure without success, but doubtless, according to the word of the Lord regarding them, they are, like Judah, scattered over the face of the earth, and mixed among the nations. Being "wanderers among the

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nations," their seed, though imperfectly distinguished by us, may possibly form a considerable part of the population of the present nations of the earth, well known to the Lord, though concealed from human observation. The extreme care with which the descent of the chosen seed in every tribe and family is continually traced in Scripture, shews it to be a subject of very considerable importance: things not now seen will be made manifest hereafter, and it is not impossible, that when all secret things shall be revealed, it may be found that those of the Gentiles, who obtain like precious faith with Abraham, the father of the faithful, though apparently children of Ham, or of Ishmael, or of Esau, are in fact lineal descendants of Abraham interwoven with the Gentile population. Considering the subject in this point of view, the promise to Abraham would be literally fulfilled by gathering Jew and Gentile according to the election of grace, (for all are not Israel who are of Israel) into the Millennial kingdom, there to sit down with the risen Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The prevailing opinion does not much differ from that which has been stated, for it is generally acknowledged, that the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham and his seed, is to be expected in the gathering of Jew and Gentile into the Christian Church.

To support what has been advanced as to the restoring of that ancient people, the children of Israel, to their own land, a few, and few only, of the numerous passages which declare it, will be stated, and other parts of Scripure will be referred to, for the satisfaction of such readers as desire further investigation. The prophecy contained in Isaiah xi. was delivered about a hundred years before the Babylonish captivity, and it treats of the blessedness of Messiah's Kingdom" His rest shall be glorious"-and further, "It shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, &c. and from the islands of the sea, and he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim but they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the West, they shall spoil them of the East together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them." The prophet shews very plainly in this chapter, to the whole of which the attention of the reader is requested, that not the return from the

Babylonish captivity, but a second recovery of all the children of Israel, is intended. It is a recovery of Israel, of Judah, and of Ephraim, from the nations of the world, into the Lord's holy mountain, the place of his rest; and the earth shall then be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. Judah and Ephraim shall no longer strive together as adversaries—some Gentile nations shall be destroyed, others shall obey the children of Israel, and finally, the Lord with his mighty wind, shall shake his hand over the river, (the Euphrates) which shall be dried up, and there shall be a highway for his people, like as it was to Israel on their return from Egypt. It may be remarked further, that Ephraim, the ten tribes, are termed outcasts; Judah, the Jews, the dispersed; expressions, which seem intended to describe the utterly lost condition of the tribes, and the scattered state of the Jews.

Jeremiah xxx. contains a prophecy to the same effect as the foregoing-" Lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord, and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it." And these are the words which the Lord spake concerning Israel, and concerning Judah :-" Fear not, Jacob, be not

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